A Reflection for the Third Sunday of Lent

Can you think of a reading that takes you back to a specific time or place? Today’s first reading does that for me. It transports me back to the family room in my childhood home on the evening of an Easter Sunday. I sit enthralled as the annual broadcast of Cecile B. DeMille’s 1956 epic film The Ten Commandments begins.

Picture it: Miriam sets her baby brother floating down the Nile to be saved by Bithiah, daughter of Ramesses I. Moses begins his charmed life, becoming a successful general, the adopted favored son of Sethi I and love interest of the beautiful Nefretiri.

Through a series of incidents and revelations, Moses develops a growing awareness of who he really is and struggles with what to do about it before being banished to the desert. Moses lands on his feet. He marries Zipporah and goes to work tending sheep for his father-in-law Jethro.

That’s where the story picks up in today’s reading. It appears Moses is doing his best to be a good man. He’s living simply, no longer benefiting from a life of luxury made possible by slave labor. Moses feels for the people left behind in bondage in Egypt, but what can he do about their plight?

God catches up to Moses in the form of a burning bush, luring him to the mountaintop in a trance-like state, accompanied by the film’s majestic score. I recall how scared Moses looks when he arrives in the presence of this great site and booming voice. He removes his shoes and folds into child’s pose.

God assures Moses that he does hear the cry of his people in Egypt, and he’s sending Moses to do something about it. Predictably, Moses responds with “Who am I Lord that you should send me?”

“I will teach thee what thee will say,” God tells Moses, “Now therefore go, and I will be with thee.”

Spoiler alert—Moses accepts this mission from God, though it was hardly a cake walk. My first hint came from the radical change in Moses’ appearance when he came down from the mountain. As a kid, I was puzzled by Moses’s accelerated aging. He seemed ancient! Now I see the shift as a way to signify Moses as a leader and foreshadow the gravity of the work ahead.

Parts of the film and its special effects seem comical to me as an adult, and I appreciate that it has its problems with biblical inaccuracies and whitewashing. Still, I think about how much that film captured my imagination and, in partnership with scripture, how it continues to make me wonder what God wants from me. Have I settled for a relatively comfortable life as a generally good person? Or does God want me to do or be more? Do I trust that God will provide me with the words and courage I need?

Clip of the burning bush scene: https://youtu.be/llOSzloC0b4

The film has aired on primetime network television during the Easter/Passover season nearly every year since 1973.The Charlton Heston classic should air at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 17, 2022 on ABC. https://parade.com/1004742/walterscott/ten-commandments-movie/