A Dominant Figure

            Moses has been the star of the story for a long time now.  We first read about his birth in Exodus 2, way back in Week 5.  (We’re in Week 18 now!)  He has dominated the story in a way no one before has.  He has been a savior, a mediator, an intercessor.  The end of Deuteronomy declares, “There’s never been a prophet like him.”  But, in the end, he dies.  He’s not the Savior, the Mediator, the Intercessor.  He is, at best, a type of the One who was yet to come.  This keeps Moses in perspective in terms of salvation history.

            There’s a more mundane lesson here for the church, too.  No one is irreplaceable.  Because the thing that matters is that the Lord keeps His promises, no one person matter too much.  I’ve thought from time to time that that’s one of the reasons that Lutherans have kept on using vestments (the technical name for the pastor’s robe).  We put the man in a robe because his fashion sense doesn’t matter; his personal style doesn’t matter; he doesn’t matter.  What matters is that he speaks God’s promises, because God’s promises matter.

            Now I know that people do matter, and I know that some people like one pastor better than another, and I know that some pastors are better at what they do than others.  But, I think you have to agree:  there’s only one Jesus.  Moses isn’t Jesus; your favorite pastor isn’t Jesus; and you’re not Jesus, either.  What Jesus has done in His suffering and death, in His work as prophet, as the One who knows the Father—that’s what matters!