Fourth Sunday of Year B

Deut 18:15-20; 

1 Cor 7:32-35 and 

Mk 1:21-28

Since the inception of the ordinary time of this liturgical year, we have been reflecting on God’s call. We saw that of Samuel, Jonah, and the fishermen who eventually became apostles. Today we are presented with the fact that prophetic mission goes with prophetic authority.

Today Jesus shocks the Pharisees and everybody in the synagogue of Capernaum, by preaching, healing, and liberating authoritatively on the Sabbath (Mark 1:21ff), against the status quo. For the status quo, the Sabbath was the sacred sign of social settlement. For Christ, the new Moses, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. For Christ, the Sabbath must be a Sabbath for love, a Sabbath for healing, exorcisms, peace and forgiveness.

Jesus’ prophetic ministry is that of freedom from falsehood, deceit, false gods, intimidation, exploitation, immoralities, and deceitful practices. The ministry of Christ, the new Moses, also entails, unity, faith and hope. It requires empathy, sympathy, compassion and justice. Therefore, Christ invites us today, wherever we are located, to participate in his prophetic ministry, beyond the shore of Galilee, in our homes, offices, class rooms, parishes, dioceses, to the ends of the earth, and to our innermost selves.

The Bible readings of today, beginning with the first reading (Deut 18:15-20) remind us that a true prophet is the mouth piece of God and a divine messenger.  A true prophet preaches with divine and moral authority, about God, not about him or herself. A true prophet is the conscience of the people.  A true prophet is not selfish, but sensitive to evil and opts for the poor, the widow, the oppressed and those in the margins of society.   A true prophet cherishes the highest good and lives the truth with love, faith and hope for the divine blessings.

In matters of faith the true prophet is not a coward. He challenges every unjust status quo and seeks for a just and peaceful alternative. True prophets offer symbols and hope that are adequate to confront the horror and massiveness of the experience that evokes indifference. The prophet is the one who brings to public expression those very fears and terrors that have been denied so long and suppressed so deeply that we do know they are there. The prophet speaks metaphorically but concretely the truth of everyday life, that hovers over us. The prophet speaks neither in rage, nor with cheap grace, but with the candor born of anguish, passion, sympathy, empathy and compassion. In doing this the prophet frees people from all types of slaveries, especially modern slaveries, and sins, mentioned by the Holy Father, Pope Francis in his 2015 New Year Message. Authentic prophets bring people, men, women and children to God.

The biblical Moses, of the Exodus, is an example of a true prophet. Though he suffered, he endured.  He challenged Pharaoh, and dismantled the politics of oppression and exploitation, by countering it with a politics of justice, true freedom, compassion and humanitarianism. Let my people go! Moses is a paradigm of all prophets. Speaking today in the first reading, he says, “The Lord will raise a Prophet like me from among your kindred, to him you shall listen” (Deut 18:19-20). This prophet would come to be Christ.

 But, in every nation, land, village, community, time and place, even here in our Nigerian Community, God is always raising prophets to speak to us in his name. Think of our parents, our Church Leaders, Popes, Saints, our teachers, professors, spiritual directors, the staff, spouses, and good friends, students, fellow parishioners around us, and models of Christian virtues. Through these “prophets” we become better people each day, and strive to do the will of God!

In the second reading (1 Cor 7:32-35), Paul was also prophetic to the Corinthian community. Like Moses, Paul challenges the common but wrong practices of his time: factions, rivalries, abuse of marriages and our sexualities. Paul offers an alternative. If you are married, good! If you are unmarried, like him, good, be faithful to your vows of celibacy, for the sake of the kingdom of God. Christ, in the Gospel (Mark 1:21–28), no doubt, is the prophet par excellence! And his prophecy is the norm for our lives. His birth challenges Herod and the powers that be! He introduces a new prophecy. He dismantles the proud and raises the lowly. He reaches to the poor, the Samaritan woman, the “Matthews,” the “tax collectors”, the “Mary Magdalene”, the “Zacchaeus”, the “Lazarus”, the “lepers” and the blinds, forbidden in the past.

In the First Reading (Deut. 18:15-20) we discover Moses assuring the people of God’s provision of a prophet like him who will speak the word of which he would be given. He also instructed the people to listen to him as the words he would be speaking belongs to God. On another hand the prophet is expected to speak only in the name of God and not in the name of other gods which will bring about damnation.

It will be very convenient for us to say that the prophet referred to in the First Reading is Joshua since he took over from Moses and God also assured him that as He was with Moses his servant He shall also be with him (Joshua 1:5).  This may not be a very wrong guess much as it is not exact. The prophet referred to in First Reading goes beyond Joshua. In fact, it accurately points to our Lord Jesus Christ who came as the greatest prophet and spoke in the name of God with authority as the Gospel Reading (Mark 1:21b-28) made us to know.

To make the assertion above more lucid we shall attempt to show some similarities between Moses and our Lord Jesus Christ:

They were Mediators: Moses was a mediator between the people of Israel and God from the moment God called him through the burning bush (Ex.3: 4ff). Our Lord Jesus Christ himself is fittingly called the mediator between God and men (1 Tim.2:5).

Great miracle workers: God performed great and marvellous works through Moses from the Ten Plagues (Ex.7:14-11:10), through the crossing of the Red Sea (Ex.14); the miracle of manna and quails (Ex.16), the water from the rock (Ex.17:6ff) and the healing from the snake on a stake (Numbers 21:9ff). In fact the book of Deuteronomy ended with a confirmation that there is no prophet like Moses who saw God face to face and God used to perform great works (Deut. 34:10-12). Our Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest of the prophets, performed innumerable miracles and works. St. John confirmed that if they were all written the whole world will not contain them (John 21:25). Like Moses also our Lord was always encountering God the father face to face like during the transfiguration (Matt 17)

Great Leaders: Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt on their way to the Promised Land. Our Lord Jesus Christ on the other hand led humanity out of darkness of sin and death into God’s marvellous light (1 Peter 2:9).

There is every need for us to reckon with the fact that every prophetic mission goes with a corresponding prophetic authority. This authority comes from God through His words. There is a big difference between the word of God and the word of man. Today we hear so many people declaring their own word as opposed to the word of God.

There are many people who are today commercializing Christianity as people are made to pay money in exchange for prayers and miracles. The word of God we are told is something alive and active (Heb.4:12). When the word of God is genuinely preached it leads people primarily to repentance, love of God and neighbour and ultimately to salvation not just assurances of prosperity and victory over enemies. Someone could ask: “what is next when we have all the prosperity in this world and all our enemies are defeated? It is for this reason that our Lord Jesus Christ advised us to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all other things will be added unto us (Matt.6:33). Those who speak their own word other than the word of God will be punished by God.

Another important point we must acknowledge today is drawn from the healing of the man with unclean spirit as we read from the Gospel today. We are told that the unclean spirits recognized our Lord Jesus Christ and not only called him Jesus of Nazareth but also the Holy One of God. On our part as those who hear the prophetic utterances do we recognize the Lord in the message and the people are required by Him to accept the words of the prophet as they are His words.

As we launch into a new week let us be conscious of the call from God through St. Paul in the Second Reading (1 Cor.7:32-35) that we should have undivided devotion to the Lord. This is applicable to all of us whether as preachers of the word or as receivers of the word of God.