21 Oct 08 — No Tomb for Moses or Christ

We finished our discussion of Moses’ earthly life in our Bible Discovery sessions last Sunday night. At the end of a long and extraordinary life, Moses, the great Liberator, Law-Giver, and Leader, blessed the Israelites, and then walked up Mt. Nebo alone. There he was graced with a viewing of the Promised Land he would not be allowed to enter and then passed away. And Deuteronomy tells us that God Godself buried Moses, and to this day no one knows where.

Why such a mysterious end? It’s a little bit like Jesus when he told the disciples, “I’m going to a place where you can not go.” Why would God not memorialize these two great faith leaders? In a day and time in which even the poorest of individuals struggle to ensure their graves are marked for future generations, God choose to set up no tombstones for these two. Why?

I believe it’s because God wanted us to take what these two gave us and live it instead of ceaselessly returning to a tomb to honor what was. In other words, God wanted to make sure that we lived what could be instead of what once was. And that’s a crucial confession. In many ways, both Judaism and Christianity have grown beyond what their first leaders accomplished — and continue to grow and change. But would we have done so if we annually made a pilgrimage to a cold tombstone? I think not.

When we have our annual celebration of Christ’s birth we celebrate life. When we have our annual celebration of Easter morning, we celebrate Christ’s continuing life. When we celebrate our baptisms we are celebrating Christ’s continuing life in us as the Holy Spirit. There is no tombstone for Christ because Christ is still alive.

And that is why there really can be no tombstone for Moses either. Moses or certainly his influence continues to live on in both the Jewish and Christian faiths. In the former in the continually evolving Law which he first gave; in the latter in the lives of those who walked in his footsteps and transformed his Law into Jesus’ Love.