NOTES for Num 20:1-13
The passage from the Book of Numbers tells of human distrust, of how this crowd that came out of Egypt, preoccupied with its problems, fails to see the presence of the One who can solve all its problems. How contagious the crowd's opinion is! Even Moses seems to fall under its influence and, losing trust, strikes the rock twice with his staff instead of bringing water from it by the WORD. This slight hesitation on the part of one “to whom much has been given” makes it impossible for him to enter the longed-for Promised Land. The Gospel passage offers a kind of answer to this story. After hearing the various opinions about Himself that come from the crowd, Jesus asks the disciples, “But who do you say that I am?”—helping them overcome this pressure from the crowd. And He receives Peter's divinely inspired answer: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”