# Surrender to the Holy One - Bishop Barron's Daily Sermon

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 5 Jul 2026, 13 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72754557/surrender_to_the_holy_one_bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Peace be with you friends.
[0:02] Speaker 2: We continue our reading of the magnificent Gospel of Mark,
[0:05] Speaker 2: and the scene for today is terrific. But the Church
[0:08] Speaker 2: gives us as the first reading a passage from Deuteronomy.
[0:12] Speaker 2: And it's very important that we get this right, I think,
[0:14] Speaker 2: because we're men to read the Gospel passage in light
[0:18] Speaker 2: of this passage.
[0:20] Speaker 1: And even if you're a reader of.
[0:21] Speaker 2: The Book of Deuteronomy, there's a very good chance you're
[0:23] Speaker 2: going to just plow right past this. But the passage
[0:26] Speaker 2: that we're looking at today is of signal importance. Listen now,
[0:31] Speaker 2: it's Moses speaking to the people before they enter the
[0:34] Speaker 2: Promised Land. He says, a prophet like me, will the
[0:39] Speaker 2: Lord your God raise up for you from among your
[0:42] Speaker 2: own kin to him?
[0:45] Speaker 1: You shall listen. Now.
[0:48] Speaker 2: Why was that passage so intriguing to ancient Israel? Well
[0:52] Speaker 2: because of who spoke it, Moses. There's no figure in
[0:57] Speaker 2: the Old Testament more important than Moses.
[1:00] Speaker 1: The only possible rival might be King David.
[1:04] Speaker 2: But Moses is the one who combines in his purpose
[1:07] Speaker 2: in person, the offices of priest, prophet and king. He's
[1:11] Speaker 2: the leader and liberator of his people, who led them
[1:15] Speaker 2: from slavery, to the Promised Land.
[1:17] Speaker 1: He's the one to whom.
[1:18] Speaker 2: God gave the law. He's the embodiment of Israel. He's
[1:23] Speaker 2: the greatest leader. He's the one, indeed, who went up
[1:26] Speaker 2: Mount Sinai and spoke to God.
[1:30] Speaker 1: Face to face. I mean, who could be greater than Moses?
[1:37] Speaker 2: If you're looking from a human standpoint, what figure could
[1:40] Speaker 2: possibly be greater than Moses?
[1:43] Speaker 1: Which begs the question, why would this man have said, again, listen,
[1:49] Speaker 1: a prophet like me, Will the Lord your God raise
[1:53] Speaker 1: up for you to him?
[1:55] Speaker 2: You shall listen? Well, wait a minute, I thought we
[1:59] Speaker 2: should listen to you. Moses, you gave us the law.
[2:03] Speaker 1: Now.
[2:03] Speaker 2: In fact, as I've said to you before, in ancient Israel,
[2:07] Speaker 2: a rabbi would claim his authority from his teacher. Right,
[2:12] Speaker 2: I learned this from Rabbi so and so, who learned
[2:15] Speaker 2: it from Rabbi so and so, who learned it from
[2:18] Speaker 2: his teacher, and from his teacher, all the way back
[2:23] Speaker 2: where to Mount Sinai, to Moses, who heard it from God.
[2:30] Speaker 2: So that's how you would have defined your authority by
[2:32] Speaker 2: tracing it back all the way to Moses, who was
[2:35] Speaker 2: the supreme authority. Okay, but there's this little weird thread,
[2:45] Speaker 2: and it's in the Old Testament. It's right here in
[2:48] Speaker 2: Deuteronomy eighteen. It's this little weird thread that this greatest
[2:52] Speaker 2: supreme figure of Israelite history says, Hey, there's one coming.
[2:58] Speaker 2: He's like me, but clearly by implication, he's greater than
[3:04] Speaker 2: I am, because listen to him when he comes.
[3:08] Speaker 1: I mean, why wouldn't.
[3:09] Speaker 2: Moses have simply said, well, look, I received all this
[3:11] Speaker 2: from God, so listen to me up and down the ages,
[3:15] Speaker 2: which indeed Israel did for centuries and centuries they still
[3:18] Speaker 2: do to this day. A faithful Jew, why wouldn't you
[3:22] Speaker 2: have just said, listen to me, up and down the ages. No, Mysteriously,
[3:29] Speaker 2: someone's coming who, my implication, is greater than I, and
[3:37] Speaker 2: he's the one you should listen to. Now listen to
[3:39] Speaker 2: this next passage from Deuteronomy. I will raise up for
[3:45] Speaker 2: them a prophet like yourself, says the Lord, and trusting
[3:49] Speaker 2: my own message to his lips, so that he may
[3:53] Speaker 2: instruct them at my bidding. Again, keep in mind Moses,
[3:57] Speaker 2: who saw God face to face, who received the law,
[4:02] Speaker 2: who brought.
[4:03] Speaker 1: The tank commandments down Mount Sinai.
[4:05] Speaker 2: Who's the criterion for Israelite life, there's someone coming after
[4:11] Speaker 2: him who's greater, and God will entrust his own message
[4:17] Speaker 2: to that one's lips.
[4:22] Speaker 1: If Moses is speaking what.
[4:24] Speaker 2: God told him, it seems as though this one is
[4:29] Speaker 2: going to speak God's own words. Now, as I say,
[4:35] Speaker 2: this passage fascinated Asian Israel because they weren't quite sure
[4:39] Speaker 2: what to do with it, what to make of it,
[4:41] Speaker 2: What could Moses possibly mean here?
[4:45] Speaker 1: It haunted the mind of Israel. Okay, keep all of that.
[4:50] Speaker 2: In mind as we turn to the gospel passage from Mark.
[4:57] Speaker 1: Then they came.
[4:58] Speaker 2: We're in chapter one of Mark, still, by the way,
[5:00] Speaker 2: with the very beginning of the Gospel. Then they came
[5:03] Speaker 2: to Capernaum, and on the Sabbath, Jesus entered the synagogue
[5:07] Speaker 2: and taught. Fair enough, that's what any Jewish male could do,
[5:12] Speaker 2: could claim the prerogative of reading the scripture and commenting
[5:17] Speaker 2: upon it. Nothing dramatic there. But then listen, the people
[5:23] Speaker 2: were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as
[5:29] Speaker 2: one having authority, and not as the scribes. Now the scribes,
[5:36] Speaker 2: So the teachers of Israel working in the temple and
[5:39] Speaker 2: their disciples elsewhere.
[5:42] Speaker 1: How did the scribes do their work well?
[5:44] Speaker 2: They claim the authority of their teachers, who claim their
[5:49] Speaker 2: teachers authority and theirs all the way back to Moses.
[5:56] Speaker 2: They didn't speak with their own authority. They spoke on
[5:59] Speaker 2: the of others. Going back to Moses.
[6:02] Speaker 1: Why were they astonished.
[6:04] Speaker 2: By Jesus teaching? Not just because he was saying new things,
[6:09] Speaker 2: It was the manner of his teaching. I would love
[6:14] Speaker 2: the Greek word here for authority is ex usia means
[6:19] Speaker 2: substance in Greek. To speak ex usia is to speak
[6:24] Speaker 2: out of your own substance.
[6:27] Speaker 1: Huh huh.
[6:30] Speaker 2: There's one coming after me, is a prophet like me.
[6:33] Speaker 2: Moses said, I who saw.
[6:35] Speaker 1: God face to face, I who gave you the law.
[6:38] Speaker 2: But there's one coming after me who's going to speak
[6:42] Speaker 2: with his own lips the very word of God. See everybody,
[6:49] Speaker 2: That's what they saw. That's what this gospel is about. Yes,
[6:55] Speaker 2: the content of Jesus teaching, and I've talked about it
[6:58] Speaker 2: all the time, and it's wonderful and beautiful in every way.
[7:01] Speaker 1: But before we.
[7:02] Speaker 2: Even get to the content of it, attend to the
[7:05] Speaker 2: authority with which it was conveyed.
[7:09] Speaker 1: That's what astonished them.
[7:14] Speaker 2: Now, as this scene goes on, what we see is
[7:18] Speaker 2: the power of this authoritative word.
[7:21] Speaker 1: Listen.
[7:23] Speaker 2: In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit.
[7:26] Speaker 2: He cried out, what do you have to do with us?
[7:29] Speaker 2: Jesus Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know
[7:33] Speaker 2: who you are, the Holy One of God. There's a
[7:38] Speaker 2: lot packed in there. Where's the first demon that Jesus
[7:41] Speaker 2: confronts in the first Gospel in church? So church people,
[7:47] Speaker 2: listen to me right now. You know, unless we think, oh,
[7:50] Speaker 2: we're kind of above the fray. Devils love to hang
[7:54] Speaker 2: out in churches.
[7:54] Speaker 1: They always have. They always have.
[7:57] Speaker 2: They love dividing, causing trouble and dissension within the church.
[8:01] Speaker 2: Don't be surprised that some of the greatest work being
[8:04] Speaker 2: done by the dark powers take place within churches. Again,
[8:08] Speaker 2: that's maybe sermon for another day. But in their synagogue
[8:11] Speaker 2: was the man with an unclean spirit? What do you
[8:14] Speaker 2: have to do with us? That's beautiful too. Isn't a
[8:18] Speaker 2: single person, but he speaks in the plural, what do
[8:22] Speaker 2: you have to.
[8:22] Speaker 3: Do with us? It's a splintered self. It's the self divided. See,
[8:30] Speaker 3: if you're not centered on God, then your whole being
[8:34] Speaker 3: splinters apart. Now, fellow sinners.
[8:37] Speaker 2: You know exactly what I'm talking about, because all of
[8:41] Speaker 2: us sinners, we feel this, the disintegration.
[8:44] Speaker 1: Of the self.
[8:45] Speaker 2: That's this man, What do you want of us, Jesus
[8:49] Speaker 2: of Nazareth, Have you come to destroy us?
[8:52] Speaker 1: I love see by implication, Yes, yes I have. That's
[8:56] Speaker 1: why I've come. That's why I've come.
[8:59] Speaker 2: I'm not around with just nice new moral or spiritual teachings. No, No,
[9:04] Speaker 2: I've come to destroy you. The Holy One of God
[9:08] Speaker 2: has come to destroy the powers that stand athwart God's purpose.
[9:12] Speaker 1: But this is the line that we're meant.
[9:15] Speaker 2: To reflect on, because it's right in line with everything
[9:19] Speaker 2: else here. I know who you are, says the dark spirit,
[9:25] Speaker 2: the Holy One of God. See, at this stage of
[9:29] Speaker 2: the game, no one really knows who he is. He's
[9:32] Speaker 2: this you know, Jewish fellow from the Nazareth, and and
[9:35] Speaker 2: he's giving, he's preaching, and he's starting to heal people,
[9:39] Speaker 2: and well he must be some prophetic figure. He's he's
[9:42] Speaker 2: a bearer of God's presence. You know, they're trying to
[9:45] Speaker 2: figure him out. The devil knows, devil knows exactly who
[9:50] Speaker 2: he is. And what the devil knows is he's the
[9:55] Speaker 2: one predicted by Moses himself in Deuteronomy eighteen. There's one
[10:01] Speaker 2: coming who's not just another Moses, not just another Jeremiah,
[10:05] Speaker 2: not just another Ezekiel, not just another Isaiah. There's one
[10:09] Speaker 2: coming who is Listen to him, the Holy One of God.
[10:17] Speaker 2: By the way, it's interesting that the devil knows who
[10:20] Speaker 2: he is. Very often it's the resistance in us that
[10:25] Speaker 2: has the clearest sense of who Christ is.
[10:26] Speaker 1: You know, I'm driving it is.
[10:29] Speaker 2: Find that point in you that's resisting, That's the point
[10:34] Speaker 2: in you that really understands.
[10:36] Speaker 1: What Christ is asking of you. You know, I'm saying,
[10:39] Speaker 1: if Jesus.
[10:39] Speaker 2: Asked us for something kind of easy, all right, But
[10:42] Speaker 2: when he's asking something difficult, it's our resistance that's going
[10:46] Speaker 2: to identify him properly.
[10:47] Speaker 1: So that's interesting.
[10:50] Speaker 2: Jesus rebuked him and said, quiet, come out of him.
[10:53] Speaker 2: The unclean spirit convulsed him with a loud cry, came
[10:56] Speaker 2: out of him, And all were amazed and said, what
[11:00] Speaker 2: is this a new teaching with authority? He commands even
[11:05] Speaker 2: the unclean spirits, and they obey him. That's the power
[11:11] Speaker 2: now of Christ. God's word made the universe.
[11:19] Speaker 1: All right.
[11:19] Speaker 2: God speaks and things come to be Lazarus come out,
[11:25] Speaker 2: and he comes out the dead man. Little girl get up,
[11:28] Speaker 2: and the dead girl gets up. My son, your sins
[11:31] Speaker 2: are forgiven, and they are forgiven. What Jesus says is now,
[11:35] Speaker 2: that's not true of mere prophets. That's not true of
[11:38] Speaker 2: mere bearers of religious truth. I mean, I can say
[11:42] Speaker 2: things all day that might be religiously true, but I
[11:44] Speaker 2: can't make things happen by my speech. Jesus does be quiet,
[11:50] Speaker 2: come out of him, and with that, he comes out
[11:53] Speaker 2: of him.
[11:56] Speaker 1: Look, everybody, if we surrender to him, the one whom
[12:01] Speaker 1: Moses predicted in Deuteronomy, if we surrender to him the Holy.
[12:07] Speaker 2: One of God, if we make him the center of
[12:11] Speaker 2: our lives, if we listen to him, we're going to
[12:16] Speaker 2: find a similar power. We're going to find a similar authority.
[12:25] Speaker 2: We can find our lives transformed. The ultimate point of
[12:30] Speaker 2: this little passage. It's not always that fascinating what happened
[12:33] Speaker 2: long ago. Now the point is now, we got to
[12:36] Speaker 2: make a decision.
[12:38] Speaker 1: Are we with him or not? Are we following him
[12:43] Speaker 1: or not?
[12:44] Speaker 2: He's the one, He's the one who is the very
[12:48] Speaker 2: word of God.
[12:49] Speaker 1: He's the Holy One of God. We have to follow him,
[12:54] Speaker 1: and God bless you.

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