In the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome sits a breathtaking sculpture of Moses, created by Michelangelo over the years of 1513-1515. With the tablets of the Ten Commandments in hand, Moses glares at the people of Israel who’ve chosen a golden calf over the Lord God. Indeed, Moses glares at all of us tourists who clamor in, a bit unnerving if you look long enough (FYI, the “horns” on the head of Moses arise from a translation error in the Latin Vulgate).

I recently visited this church while on a mission trip in Italy. At the same time I was reading about the death of Moses in Deuteronomy. Here’s the line that popped in my head when I saw this statue: Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated.

In this statue by Michelangelo, Moses is muscular, intense, and powerful—in others words, totally ripped. During his time leading Israel, Moses spent days and days with the Lord, from the experience of the burning bush to two separate 40 day periods on Mount Sinai. Along with the daily workouts of living in the wilderness, did so much time alone with God influence his physical body? Did sitting in the presence of God create robust health and unmatched energy?

Why not? Jesus, God in the flesh, healed with ease. The Lord created the universe in perfect form, only now corrupted by sin. What if the time Moses spent in the clouds covering Mount Sinai exposed him to the creative forces swirling around Yahweh? Like radiation but with the opposite effect, Moses grew stronger and healthier the more he was exposed.

Should we be surprised? The God who spoke our world into existence also spoke face to face with Moses. During those conversations massive amounts of divine energy flowed through Moses. As a result his body healed, his eyesight sharpened, and his mind clarified.

Here’s a foreshadowing for all who follow the Lord. On moving from this world to the next, those who enter His presence will grow wiser than any genius, stronger than any olympian, and able to leap tall buildings with a single bound.

Deuteronomy 34:5-7

Photo by Jason Steele

I’ve never seen a recipe for goat boiled in its mother’s milk. For good reason, because the Law of Moses expressly prohibits this practice. Of the many do’s and don’t in the Book of the Law, this one presents as one of the strangest. Why the command you shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk?

Competing theories surround this teaching. One view stresses the value of life, as it would be improper to use the substance meant to nurture and sustain a young animal (its mother’s milk) to cook it after its death. It represents an unnatural mingling.

Other scholars believe this practice was a Canaanite fertility rite, and the command was designed to prevent Israelites from adopting such customs. God told Moses that the Israelites should not follow any of the worship practices of the peoples he drove from the land (Deuteronomy 12:2-4). These nations worshipped demonic entities, gods who cared nothing for human life. No hint of these religions should remain if the land was to be set aside for the Lord’s people.

While this represents an arcane issue from the Old Testament, it stands as a reminder of the holiness of God. The nations in the promised land moved so far from any semblance of worship of the true God that the Lord scourged the place clean. God commanded the people of Israel, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

God is holy, and God cares about my everyday. He wants my eyes turned toward him, not to the practices of the world. As I do so he brings the best to my life, and if I never eat young goat boiled in its mother’s milk, so much the better.

Deuteronomy 14:21; Leviticus 19:2

Photo by Andreea Pop

King David understood the difference between darkness and light, having trafficked in both during his years of adventuring with the Lord. He grew to appreciate how light brings liberation from the grasp of darkness. He wrote this line of praise to God: For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.

By the light of the Lord we wisely parse the ways of this world. If I’m open to it, the light of God shines into every crevice of my life, disinfecting, cleaning and healing. God is light, and before him shadows flee. Although I sometimes prefer to remain in those shadows, David reminds me that life is better in the light.

Psalm 36:9

Photo by Alex

Only a couple of days prior, Peter denied Jesus three times and John helplessly watched Jesus die a bloody death on a cross. Both now heard an impossible story from Mary Magdalene and sprinted to see for themselves.

Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first…Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed.

Stomachs-churning, hoping-against-hope, Peter and John rushed toward the tomb. Finding it empty, they saw and believed. So it was true—Jesus had risen from the dead. Later these disciples, along with many others, would meet the resurrected Jesus. They would in turn spread the news far and wide, all the way to us today.

The painting above is entitled: The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection, by Eugène Burnand. I love the depiction of Peter and John, sunrise on their faces, filled with the unbelievable anticipation of what they might find. I’m reminded of who I might find as well.

He is risen—He is risen indeed!

John 20:1-10