“The New Moses”

Matthew 4:1-11

Welcome to the season of Lent!

Lent began last Wednesday – Ash Wednesday – and continues for forty days right through Holy Week. It is a period of time intended to give Christian people a chance to prepare for Easter, but in a way different than you might expect. Instead of focusing on the outcome of Jesus’ journey right now, we are asked to reflect upon the journey itself. Before we ever get to the joy of resurrection, we must come face-to-face with crucifixion. The road to Easter always goes through the Cross, God’s life comes to us through death, and Christ’s journey to the Cross is the focal point of Lent. Today’s text from Matthew 4 helps us understand what the Jesus journey is all about.

You may have noticed in the story just read that Jesus’ journey through the wilderness – like Lent – lasted for forty days. That’s where we get the time frame for the season. But even more importantly, to the Jewish people who were Jesus’ first followers, the story of forty days in the desert wilderness brought up the memory of Moses. Do you remember? Moses parted the Red Sea, and when he did, the people said, “Holy Moses!” Moses led the Hebrew people through the wilderness for how many years? Forty years. Do you see the connection?

And, just as a humorous aside, Golda Meier – the former Prime Minister of Israel – once lamented the bad fortune of the Jewish people by saying that the Jews are the only people in the world who could have wandered for forty years looking for a place to live, and settled in the only place in the Middle East that doesn’t have oil!

The story of Moses and the exodus is the story of Jewish identity. Moses had led the Hebrew slaves from their bondage in Egypt to God’s freedom on the other side of the Red Sea! Moses was the greatest hero of all!

But now comes a story about a new Moses. And the similarities are striking! Just as Moses faced three crises in the wilderness - the lack of bread, the urge to put God to the test by striking a rock for water, and the temptation to worship a golden calf - so did Jesus face the same three temptations at the hand of Satan: “Tell these stones to become bread.” “Test God’s faithfulness by throwing yourself from the pinnacle of the temple.” “Fall down and worship me, and I’ll give you all these riches.” The forty-day temptation of Jesus in the wilderness corresponds in amazing detail to the forty-year journey of Moses in the wilderness. Matthew is trying to tell us, “Here is a new Moses!”

And a greater Moses! What took Moses forty years to accomplish will take Jesus forty days. When Moses came to the Red Sea, the waters parted, but when Jesus came to the waters of baptism, the heavens opened, and the voice of God came, saying, “This is my beloved Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

This is a story about a new and greater Moses! The Messiah! The Son of God!

And perhaps that can help us understand what this season is about. Just like Moses did for the Hebrew slaves – Jesus comes to us to show us the truth of our lives – that we are enslaved and a long ways away from the life of freedom God desires for us. Like Moses, Jesus comes to lead us to freedom!

I’ve been thinking lately that when Moses first came and announced to the Hebrew slaves that he was going to lead them out to freedom, they balked at the announcement. They just didn’t get it! They saw no need! And it may well be that you and I – living in a free land like our own, with a Constitution and a Bill of Rights and many guarantees of freedom – may not get it either. Let me ask you, do you think of yourself as enslaved, or free? For me, it’s nearly impossible to imagine myself as being anything other than free!

Which is why I need times like Lent when God can help me see that I’m not nearly as free as I think I am. Freedom, you see, is not really a political experience. Freedom is deeper than that. Freedom is spiritual. You can live in a free land, and yet be in bondage to deep hurt and great evil. And you can live in chains, indeed you can be led away to crucifixion, and yet be truly free!

So what is it that enslaves us today, even while living in the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Well, I daresay, that like the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, the greatest power of enslavement in the world today is bad religion. Perhaps more than anything else, bad religion was at the heart of why the Hebrew slaves resisted Moses. Bad religion can destroy your ability and even your desire to become free!

I heard a true story a little while ago about a young guy who gave up on God and Jesus and Christianity all because of a rabbit. You ask, “How could a rabbit ruin one’s faith?” Well, let me tell you.

This young man is one of the millions of people who grew up under the influence of an American religious culture that teaches that everything in the Bible is literally, factually, historically and scientifically true. It must be accepted as God’s eternal truth. You know what I’m talking about because most of us have been influenced by this same general idea. And he believed it without question – with his whole heart. Until he got to the rabbit.

I’m sure that you all know everything there is to know about the Old Testament book of Leviticus. For example, you know that Leviticus, among other things, describes food that is clean and food that is unclean – that is, food that is approved by God for eating, and food that is an abomination to God and should never be eaten. The word “abomination”, you know, means “unclean.” You may have noticed that Leviticus has a lot to say not only about what foods are abominations to the Lord, but what people are abominations to the Lord, too. In fact, some of these abomination descriptions in Leviticus lie at the very heart of our own modern debates about whether or not we accept certain groups of people. But this young man’s problem wasn’t with people. It was with rabbits.

Leviticus 11 teaches that it’s okay to eat the meat of any animal that has both a split hoof and that chews the cud. Got that? Split hoof PLUS chewing the cud equals “its okay to eat it.” So at least you know that what you’re eating at Outback Steakhouse is biblically okay. However, where you have to be careful is when it comes to animals that have a split hoof but don’t chew the cud, OR animals that chew the cud but don’t have a split hoof! Are you following this?

Well, for example, Leviticus 11 says that the camel, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof. That makes it unclean. And that’s why you can’t get camel meat at the Outback. Similarly, the pig – though it has a split hoof – does not chew the cud. So it’s unclean, too, which is why you can’t get barbecue here in east Tennessee. What? We LOVE barbecue here? There’s a barbecue restaurant on nearly every street corner? Well, I guess maybe we overlook that part of the Bible. Literalism, you know, is always very selective.

But even selective literalism was not the crisis this young man faced. His problem was with the rabbit! Because Leviticus 11:6 says this:

“The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is unclean…”

And this young man – a Zoology major no less – knew for a fact that rabbits - though they do chew - do not chew the cud. So he walked away – from God, from Christ, from Christianity. He had believed everything in the book was factually true. He had been told he couldn’t be a Christian if he didn’t accept it all. He had been taught that, if one part could not be believed, none of it could be believed. So faced with a teaching that didn’t match up with the facts, he walked away – from God, from Christ, from Christianity. All because of that rabbit. Or maybe it was because of bad religion.

Bad religion causes good people to believe and do stupid things. The Hebrew slaves refused to follow Moses to freedom. Why do you think that is? Because the religion of the day taught, among other things, that slavery is a God-ordained institution, that slaves should obey their masters, that burdens like slavery fall upon people because they deserve it. To resist slavery is to resist the judgment of God. And, like slave people in every generation, they simply swallowed it whole.

So, at first, they refused to go with Moses - just like the young woman in the newspaper a while back who wouldn’t leave the enslavement of abuse inflicted by her husband. Her religion teaches that wives should be submissive to their husbands and that divorce is never an option. She simply believed it without question. Now she’s dead.

Bad religion gives people justification for tolerating terrible evil. Bad religion often causes otherwise good people to commit great sin. So a tearful mother and father stand before a judge and admit that their child died at their own hands because their religion teaches, “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” They accepted it as divine fact, and it led to tragedy. So a fifteen year-old boy straps a bomb on himself and blows himself up along with a dozen innocent people - all in the name of Allah. Tragedy. So a brilliant young person never pursues her interest in science because all the science she needs is on the pages of the Bible. Tragedy. So a wealthy society accepts poverty as a way of life on the theory that “the poor you always have with you” and the belief that people are poor because of their own misdeeds. Tragedy.

Bad religion enslaves people and produces human tragedy that makes God weep!

Bad religion causes us to never ask the questions we really need to ask. It causes us to never question the authority of others, or the validity of the status quo. And most unfortunately, bad religion causes us to not be able to see what lies on the other side of the Sea.

Freedom! God’s freedom!

So Jesus comes to us – like Moses came to the Hebrew slaves. He says, “Come and follow me.” And when you follow Jesus, all the way to the Cross, you soon see that Jesus offers a way of living that is the alternative to the bad religion that enslaves. His followers learn to believe in a God of mercy, love and hope who passionately loves people. His followers learn to accept others for who they are, and to forgive sins, and to heal wounds, and to help people up from the pitfalls and the enslavements of life. His followers learn that lepers and prostitutes and sinners of all kinds are not unclean and untouchable, but rather precious children made in the image of God whose lives are worth transforming through the touch of gracious love. Jesus lives out a life that believes enemies can become friends, sick people can become well, and the whole world can be saved because God loves it so much!

Jesus shows us there is a Promised Land of God’s freedom out beyond the bad religion of literalism, intolerance, and self-righteousness. Jesus demonstrates there really is a kingdom of God to which the world is invited! It lies just ahead, on the other side of the cross.

So Jesus comes to you and me.

“Follow me!” he says.

That invitation means a couple of things that I want to leave with you today:

First of all, you and I have to learn a new way of reading the Bible. We have to be willing to put aside the human interpretations of the theologians of ancient Israel, and the 17^th-century Europeans, and even modern day American preachers, and learn instead to interpret the Bible through Jesus. If you can’t see Jesus saying it, or doing it, or living it, don’t swallow it. Only Jesus, the living Word can rightly interpret the written Word, and if the written Word contradicts Jesus, its not the Word of God.

Second, you and I have to learn a new way of relating to people – not as God’s enemies, but as God’s beloved children. John tells us that God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And if you’ve been brought up in the bad religion that teaches that God is out to get you, that God is ticked off at the world, that God is ready to push the button and blow us all away unless we give God a good reason why he shouldn’t, you need to let it go.

Third, we have to accept a new way of understanding ourselves – not as people who have arrived anywhere, but as people on a journey with Jesus into a future that is still unfolding, but that promises to be brighter and broader and more beautiful than anything we can imagine. There is a new world of faith that you and I have not even scratched the surface of yet! True faith is not about holding onto yesterday, but about stepping out into the future!

And finally, we need to learn that we’re not alone on this journey. Unlike Moses, Jesus is able to transcend time and space to be with us and lead us through every circumstance. In your sickness, Jesus is there. In your disappointment, Jesus is there. In your loss, Jesus is there. In your struggle, Jesus is there. In your doubt, Jesus is there. In your enslavement, Jesus is there!

And Jesus will lead you to freedom!

I hope your religion is not built on a rabbit. I pray that your faith is built on the new Moses – even Jesus Christ our Lord.