"Mountain’s Majesty"

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned." The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear." But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:18-24).

I dare say that everyone here today has heard of Mt. Everest - the tallest mountain in the world. It stood for years as the ultimate unconquered challenge. Sir Edmund Hillary is the first to have scaled its sheer cliffs and ice covered face to reach the summit. Since him many other men have climbed it successfully - many other men have died frozen and alone in the attempt. This mountain is a scary place, full of danger and death. Mt. Everest - the tallest mountain in the world - or is it? There is another mountain peak in the Himalayan mountains. It doesn’t even have a name. It goes simply by the designation K2. Some modern scientists believe it is actually taller than Mt. Everest by a few feet. Yet no one thinks much of it. Everest has a name. Everest has a reputation. Everest is the challenge that men and women constantly try to beat by sheer endurance and strength of will. They all know that K2 is there but who really cares? They can see it but it seems either unreachable or not worth the effort.

Our text for today also speaks of two mountains. One is Mt. Sinai where the Law of God was delivered to his people. The other is heavenly Mt. Zion which is the city of the living God. Sinai is like our Mt. Everest where countless people have tried to reach the summit on their own power but unlike Everest, everyone who tries to reach heaven by the conquering of the Law fails and dies. The other mountain is heavenly Mt. Zion, something like our K2, something that many people may feel is unreachable or not worth their consideration. Let us compare the two mountains in our text as the writer to the Hebrews did and see which mountain is truly the more majestic.

The first mountain, Sinai, is the mountain of the Law, "a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: ‘If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.’ The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, ‘I am trembling with fear.’" It represents in all its frightful power the relationship of man to God through the covenant of the Law. First and foremost this mountain is tangible. The old covenant between God and his people was something that could be seen and felt. It was filled with physical externals of judgement and punishment. The Law is, if nothing else, something that can be felt. We feel it from the swat a parent gives to the backside of an unruly child to a long jail sentence for the repeat offender. We feel the daily stings of the conscience every time we know we have sinned against God. All through life, including when we are laid into the cold ground when the Law has its final say for each and every person, a relationship with God based on the Law is something inescapably tangible.

But like God’s presence on Mt. Sinai, a relationship with God based on Law obscures a clear vision of him as he wishes to be seen. When God descended on that mountain it was an awesome sight to behold. We are told that to come to it was to come to that which "is burning with fire, to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast - to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them." Smoke obscured all sight and only the voice of God could be heard roaring out like a trumpet blast. In the bringing of the Law all the people saw was the might and power of God. In the Law he gave, they became so involved with following the letter of the law that they did not see the love behind it. Though everything God did for his people in the Old Testament was directing their vision toward their salvation which he promised, his plan of salvation remained veiled, yet to be fully revealed until the Messiah came.

Today, when we try to approach God by the Law we see and experience the same thing. When we falsely believe that we can do something to be able to climb that mountain on our own we are met with the stark reality of the Law. Like the mountain climber that seeks to measure himself against the challenge of Everest, we often try to measure ourselves worthy of God by the mountain of the Law. But when the comparison is made all we can possibly see is how puny we actually are. All we see is the might and power of God condemning us in our arrogance. Look into the mirror of God’s Law. Look around at the imposing heights you have to scale in it and realize that you will not survive this climb. A reality so great that Moses cried, "I am trembling with fear." By the Law God commanded the Israelites to be holy and perfect even as he was. Measure yourself against his holy standard and see where you stand - where we all stand together.

Do you get the picture? Any relationship to God based on the Law ends up being terrifying. Trying to get to God by this mountain is going to kill us, and we usually don’t realize it until it’s too late. The chosen people of God were terrified by Sinai. With the awesome power of God revealed in his holy Law they "begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded." If we honestly looked at the results of our efforts to please God by following the Law, we would beg never to hear it again either, because with every statute we hear the verdict GUILTY! Even faithful Moses, who obeyed God when no one else would, when confronted with the holy presence of God in the Law said, "I am trembling with fear."

Worst of all, our relationship with God by the Law can only be temporary. God never intended his Law to be his final word to man. If it were, it would be impossible for anyone to come to him by it because no person has ever lived the perfect life. You and I have never lived the perfect life. Admit it, we have hated our fellow man. We have sought out our own self interest above the good of our neighbor. We have ignored God by absenting ourselves from his life-giving Word and the forgiveness offered in his sacraments. And most tempting of all we have often tried to make our relationship with God right again by doing something of ourselves instead of recognizing the completed work of Christ on the Cross. In these and all other ways, the wages of sin is death. If the Law is all there is, each and every one of us would be sitting on God’s death row with nothing more to look forward to then the coming of the executioner. Based on the Law we would be separated from God forever. What a horrid mountain! We can’t stay here! But we are dying and don’t have the strength to save ourselves. Who will rescue us?! [SELAH]

"But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God." Thank God, we have been rescued! Alone and dying on the frigid expanse of the Law we were rescued by our Lord Jesus. The relationship we try to build with God by being good and trying our best would have surely killed us, but by the grace of God we have been saved.

Where before there was only death and misery - cold rock and barren expanse - our Lord has brought us to a different mountain filled with beauty and life. Our Lord himself climbed Mt. Sinai for us rescuing each and every one of us along the way until he reached the summit. On that summit he then gathered all our sins upon himself - even the sin of our vain attempt to satisfy God on our own - and then climbed the last hill of Calvary alone and fulfilled God’s demand for our failures.

Because of our Lord Jesus, because he fulfilled the Law in our place, because he paid the debt for our sin in his death, because he did all this out of his perfect love, we have come to heavenly Mt. Zion. We have been transported from the physically tangible reality of death to the spiritual reality lived with God now and the new physical reality of life with him forever in the resurrection of all believers. Our focus has been changed because of what Jesus has done from the ritual of the covenant of the Law to the righteousness of Christ in the Gospel.

This heavenly mountain of God on which we now live through faith in Jesus is not the cloud enshrouded, fire-scorched heights of Sinai. Our relationship with God is now crystal clear. We see the truth of our new relationship as forgiven and dearly loved children of the Father because the Sun of Righteousness has risen. The truth of God has been revealed to us in his Son Jesus. As the writer to the Hebrews wrote earlier in his epistle: "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.." It is in Jesus that we see God for who he truly is. He is no longer veiled behind the Law but he is shown as the God who loves all mankind in his Son. Where before our sin would only let us see his terrible majesty, we now clearly see his tender and embracing love in the sacrifice of his Son.

In this same light of the Son of God we also see that we are not alone on this mountain like we were before under the Law. The gospel of Jesus is for all mankind. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Around us we see, as is said in verse 22, "thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly" and the "church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven." You may not be able to see the angels around us right now that share the kingdom of God with us but take a good look at those people sitting - and standing - here today. These are the church of the firstborn. The redeemed and baptized believers in Jesus Christ. Each and every one of us who believe in Christ alone for our salvation have our names written in heaven. You, and you, and you, God knows your name. He has written it in heaven for the sake of his Son. We are united to him and to each other. We are united to the saints who have gone before us, "to the spirits of righteous men made perfect." Men and women made perfect not because of their reliance on the Law but in faith of the promise of God - like faithful Abraham who "believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness."

All of this because our Jesus has saved us. All of this because he loved us when we were in rebellion against him in sin. All of this even though we don’t deserve it. In being brought to this heavenly Mt. Zion, the kingdom of God granted to us because of the sacrifice of his Son, we are brought "to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant." Having nailed our sins to his cross he has now laid his own robe of righteousness on our shoulders. We now can stand in the holy presence of God because we have been bought back at a great price. We no longer have to fear the wrath of God because we have an advocate in this Lord Jesus Christ. By the Law Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance, now we have Jesus and have his "sprinkled blood that speaks a better word that the blood Abel."

Because of Jesus we have been brought into a relationship with God incomparably superior to anything we could have hoped to gain on our own. And this relationship is permanent. The Law has been fulfilled by Jesus once and for all. All our sins have been paid for by Jesus once and for all. Now on earth the church is our Mt. Zion. Here we bask in the presence of God as we are again and again forgiven, renewed and strengthened as we hear his Word and receive his real and tangible presence in his Body and Blood of the Supper. And as our Lord has promised he has gone to prepare a place for each one of us. Our eternal Mt. Zion is the heavenly Jerusalem where we will live with the Lamb forever. God grant each of us the faith to remain in this blessed and superior relationship with our heavenly Father. This relationship is given by God’s grace through faith in the atoning work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in whom we have "come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God." AMEN.