In the Torah, or the first five books of the Bible, we see Moses teaching with authority because He spoke with God “face to face, as with a friend.”

While those books are clear Moses could not look upon the face of God, he spoke with God directly. This is why he could teach and rule Israel with authority–he had a personal, one-on-one connection with God the other people in Israel lacked.

As we see in today’s first reading, before his death, Moses promised a prophet like himself would arise later on. Pope Benedict XVI explains in His “Jesus of Nazareth” books that this means precisely a prophet who would have a personal connection with God like Moses did, who also saw God “face to face,” who spoke to God as with a friend.

Jesus is this Prophet. This is why, unlike other prophets and rabbis, He presumed to teach with authority. Not even Elijah and Elisha presumed the kind of authority Jesus took up.

This is because Jesus was always gazing upon the Face of His Father. He came to reveal the Father to us AS Father, with all the love, mercy, discipline, and power that entails.

This is one reason Jesus ruffled so many feathers. Rabbis weren’t supposed to teach with authority like Jesus did! Their place was to pass on the traditional teaching of Israel and teach the Scriptures. And Jesus . . . Jesus didn’t even have official training to BE a rabbi!

It can be hard for us in the modern day to understand sometimes just why Jesus was so controversial. But today’s Gospel helps to explain part of the puzzle. Like the guards sent to arrest Jesus in John’s Gospel proclaim, “No one ever taught like this man.”

And that’s a big deal. It shows that Jesus didn’t think He was a man like other men. He claimed differently. We have to take His claim of divine authority, his claim to BE divine, seriously–either to accept it or reject it, but we need to take it seriously. As C.S. Lewis says, “Jesus didn’t leave other options open to us. He didn’t intend to.”