John modeled his Fourth Gospel on the Book of Exodus.l

Tuesday, 7/28/15

Our readings from the Book of Exodus make us see that the apostle St. John modeled his Gospel on the Exodus story.

Just as God, using Moses. brought the people out of slavery, leading them to the promised land ; so John’s Gospel shows us how God, using Jesus, breaks us away from sinfulness, leading us through lifetimes that end with out reaching our promised land. Along the way both Moses and Jesus gave us bread from heaven.

Today’s reading from the Book of Exodus tells us that while the Israelites were living in tents in the desert, Moses erected a special dwelling, the “meeting tent,” for God. Then,  the cloud of God’s glory descended on the tent. Moses, after forty day there with God, emerged with the Ten Commandments.

We see those events echoed for the Son of God in Chapter One of John’s Gospel. Verse 14 says, “The Word was made flesh, and he erected his tent with ours. And we saw his glory”

Then, in verses 16 and 17 John wrote, “From His fullness we have all received. Because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth come through Jesus Christ.”

Meditating on these verses from John’s Gospel, we see the human body of Jesus as the tent in which the Son of God accompanies us. We can see his glory as the unearthly generosity by which he gave himself for us.

We see how blessed we are, when we consider how Moses gave us nothing but rules; while Jesus gives us the grace to live by his rules, while letting us see the rightness of them.