A reading from the book of Exodus (32:7-14)
The Lord then said to Moses, ‘Go down at once, for your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt have gone wrong. They have been quick to leave the way that I ordered them to follow. They have cast themselves an image of a calf, worshipped it and offered sacrifice to it, shouting, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” ’
The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people. Look how obstinate they are! So leave me now, so that my anger can blaze at them and I make an end of them! I shall make you into a great nation instead.’
Moses tried to pacify the Lord his God and said, ‘Why, Lord, does your anger blaze at your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt by your great power and mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, “He brought them out with evil intention, to slaughter them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth?” Give up your burning wrath; relent over this disaster for your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom you swore by yourself and made this promise, “I shall make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven, and this whole country of which I have spoken, I shall give to your descendants, and it will be their heritage for ever.” ’ The Lord then relented over the disaster which he had intended for his people.
After forty days Moses comes down Mount Sinai to be greeted by apostasy among the people. In the absence of Moses they have prevailed upon Aaron to cast an idol of a golden calf, which they have worshipped. Salvation has been attributed to idols, to ‘a bull which eats grass’. God threatens to unleash his ‘anger’, and offers a covenant to Moses instead. Moses, like Abraham before him, pleads for the people. What will the Egyptians say if God, the saviour of Israel, goes on to ‘slaughter them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth’? Moses recalls the promise God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of a land and innumerable offspring. And God relents.
Psalm 106 (105) The psalm recounts these events in the wilderness. How could they exchange the ‘bull which eats grass’ for God? And yet false gods are always in fashion.
A reading from the holy gospel according to John (5:31-47)
Jesus said:
‘If I bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true;
but there is another who witnesses about me,
and I know that his witness about me is true.
You sent messengers to John, and he bore witness to the truth.
I do not accept human witness;
it is for your salvation that I say this.
He was the lamp burning and shining
and for a time you were glad to rejoice in his light.
But I have a greater witness than John’s:
the deeds my Father has given me to complete,
these same deeds that I do witness that the Father has sent me.
Besides, the Father who sent me himself witnesses on my behalf.
You have never heard his voice, you have never seen his form,
and you do not have his word dwelling in you
because you do not believe in the one whom he sent.
You search the scriptures,
believing that in them you have eternal life;
it is these that bear witness about me,
and yet you are not willing to come to me to have life!
I do not accept glory from any human being,
but I know that you do not have the love of God in you.
I have come in the name of my Father and you do not accept me;
if someone else comes in his own name you will accept such a one.
How can you believe, if you accept glory from one another
but do not seek glory from God?
Do not think that I will be your accuser before the Father;
your accuser will be Moses, in whom you have put your hope.
If you believed Moses you would believe me,
for it was about me that he wrote.
If you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?’
The words of Jesus after the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda in John chapter 5 continue and conclude in this reading. He has been speaking about the work he and the Father do. Now the question is about witnesses to support his case and Jesus refers to three. The witness given by John the Baptist, a ‘lamp shining for a time’, was nevertheless only a ‘human witness’. The ‘greater’ witness is ‘the deeds my Father has given me to complete’. And yet deeds such as the healing of the paralysed man are rejected, because they refuse to believe ‘in the one whom God sent’. They also reject the Scriptures, which ‘bear witness’ to Jesus. They are not willing to receive life from Jesus. They trust in Moses but Moses will become their accuser because what Moses wrote testifies to Jesus.
Are there any other witnesses to Jesus?
Pray for those whose religion does not allow them to learn new things.