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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
“Lift up your eyes to the Bible’s mountains”, so our special Midweek Lenten Sermon Series calls you to do this Lent, and thus, so far this Lent, we have considered, in the order of their first mentions in the Bible, both “the Mountains of Ararat”, where the ark containing Noah and his family came to rest, and Mount Zion (also called Mount Moriah and Mount Calvary or Golgotha, and associated with Jerusalem), where Abraham offered his only son Isaac, which King David later took and used for his capitol city, where King David also purchased a site for the Temple that King Solomon built, where Jesus was crucified, and which, in one form or another, ultimately is exalted on the Last Day. The Bible may mention Mount Zion before the Bible mentions Mount Sinai, which we consider tonight, but Mount Zion’s primary religious significance arguably comes after Mount Sinai’s primary religious significance—both as places of God’s revealing Himself and of His making a covenant with His people, as God did with Noah on the Mountains of Ararat (confer Talmon, TDOT, III:444).
There are three main possibilities for the location of the Bible’s “Mount Sinai” (which can include several different peaks and also be called “Mount Horeb”), and what is regarded as the best-possible location of Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb is the traditional location towards the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, between the horns of the Red Sea (Wright, TIDOTB III:376‑377; confer TLSB, ad loc Exodus 3:1, p.33, and ad loc Exodus 19:2, p.126; ESL #5514). There apparently the Son of God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and told Moses that Moses would bring God’s people out of slavery in Egypt and serve (or, “worship”) God there on that mountain (Exodus 3:1-2, 12). And, indeed, God’s people did come there to that mountain, as we heard in tonight’s First Reading, and so did the prophet Elijah later come there to that mountain, as we heard in tonight’s Second Reading, which incidentally comes after Elijah’s actions on Mount Carmel, which actions and mountain we will consider next week.
In the New Testament, Mount Sinai and its covenant are contrasted with Mount Zion and its covenant, for example, as we heard in tonight’s Third Reading (confer and compare Galatians 4:21-31). But, we should not wrongly oversimplify the contrast between the two mountains in such a way that we think of Mount Sinai as corresponding only to God’s law that shows us our sins and of Mount Zion as corresponding only to God’s Gospel that saves us from our sins. Both God’s law and God’s Gospel are spoken on both Mount Sinai and Mount Zion! Oral and written commandments arguably are given on both, and teaching that reveals God as the deliverer of His people from slavery to a promised land arguably is given on both (confer Patterson, TWOT, II:623).
For example, in tonight’s First Reading God begins His covenant with Moses by summarizing what God had done for His people and then describing what His people were to do as a result, and they people said that they would do all that the Lord had spoken. Included were the Ten Commandments, which immediately follow tonight’s First Reading and which we heard read as this past Sunday’s Old Testament Reading (Exodus 20:1-17). Of course, as you may know, before God had finished both speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai and giving him the two tablets of the testimony, written with the finger of God (Exodus 31:18), the people disregarded God and Moses and had Aaron make a golden calf for them to worship, with sacrifices and meals, and gave credit for delivering them from slavery in Egypt to the calf (Exodus 32:1-6). By nature, of course, you and I are no better. At our baptisms and confirmations, we renounce the devil and all of his works and all of his ways, and we confess faith in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we may not even get out of the building that very day before we again have sinned against God or against one another in thought, word, or deed. On our own we un‑holy people cannot come into the presence of the Holy God. We deserve temporal and eternal punishment, but, out of His great love, mercy, and grace, God calls and so enables us to turn in sorrow from our sin and to trust Him to forgive our sin. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives us for the sake of Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord.
Tonight’s Psalm recounts God’s saving His people through Moses in the exodus from Egypt, and Holy Scripture tells us that, on the mountain where Jesus was transfigured and was talking with Moses and Elijah, who both earlier had encountered God on Mount Sainai, they spoke of Jesus’s departure (or “exodus”), which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:30-31). In that “exodus”, Jesus, God in human flesh, delivered God’s people from slavery to sin ultimately to the Promised Land of heaven. Jesus died on the cross for the sins of all people, including you and me. Jesus died in our place. Jesus died the death that we deserved, and then Jesus rose from the dead. By the power of the Holy Spirit working in us through His Word and Sacraments, we believe that Jesus’s death leads God the Father to forgive us, and so we are forgiven—forgiven of our sinful nature and all our actual sin, whatever our actual sin might be. Truly Jesus is, as the Divinely‑inspired author of the book of Hebrews in tonight’s Third Reading called Him, the mediator of a new and better covenant (confer Hebrews 8:6; 9:15), and, better than Abel’s blood that calls for vengeance, Jesus’s blood speaks a better word, that of pardon and forgiveness (Lutheran Service Book 433:4; confer Genesis 4:10; Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51).
Notably, after God gave the Ten Commandments, and the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, Exodus tells us, the people were afraid and trembled and stood far off and asked Moses to speak to them for God, instead of God’s speaking to them directly (Exodus 20:18-21), and the Lord agreed and had Moses serve the people in that way, as did prophets after him, and Jesus and His apostles, and as do their successors, pastors today (confer Deuteronomy 5:22-31; 18:15-19). Neither the curtain of the temple’s being torn in two, from top to bottom at the time of Jesus’s death (for example, Matthew 27:51), nor the Lutheran Reformation in the sixteenth century did away with the one Office of the Holy Ministry, its pure preaching of the Gospel and its right handing-out of the Sacraments. In the First Reading, we especially take note of the people’s being consecrated, set apart as holy, and we think of Holy Baptism and our being cleansed with water and the word and clothed with Christ’s righteousness. When God’s covenant with His people through Moses later was confirmed, Moses and other leaders of the people beheld God and ate and drank in His presence (Exodus 24:9-11), and we think of the Holy Supper and God’s being in our presence with bread that is Christ’s Body given for us and wine that is Christ’s Blood of the new covenant shed for us, so which also give us forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation (confer Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25).
In the Second Reading, a messenger of God gave Elijah miraculous food that carried him through the 40 days and nights of his journey to Mount Horeb (or “Mount Sinai”). Some commentators say that Elijah was on a pilgrimage for enlightenment (Wright, TIDOTB, III:376), or that Elijah fled for new supplies of strength and grace (Waltke, TWOT, I:224). Holy Scripture says that Elijah ran for his life, and Elijah clearly felt abandoned and lonely, as if he had done his job jealously—like our Lord’s zealousness in the Gospel Reading this past Sunday (John 2:13‑25)—done his job jealously but without God’s blessing it and as if Elijah alone was left faithful. Wrong as those feelings were, we might relate to Elijah’s feelings, and we might similarly flee persecution! And, likewise, not in a strong wind, earthquake, or fire, but in the low-whisper of God’s Word read and preached and His Sacraments rightly handed-out, He calls us to repent and then forgives us. We are comforted by knowing that Elijah was weak as we are weak, and that God forgave Elijah and forgives us. We are comforted by the fact that there are more faithful people than we might always remember, but we do not remain in fellowship with those who are not faithful. Ultimately, the number of the faithful in any one place or time does not matter but what matters is the faithfulness itself! On the mountain that is this place, with reverence and awe, we offer to God our acceptable worship, seeking and receiving His forgiveness of sins through His Means of Grace, serving as His kingdom of priests, the priesthood of all the baptized, the priesthood of all believers, giving Him our thanks and praise here and bearing witness to Him by word and deed in our various callings of life (confer 1 Peter 2:5, 9).
As Elijah went from Mount Sinai, we go from this place knowing that we will continue in the Church Militant until we die in this life, unless our Lord first comes in glory, and that, even though another generation will take up the fight, the outcome is already determined: victory is ours. Ultimately, we come to the Mount Zion that is the Heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels in festal gathering, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. Then, as we sang in tonight’s Palm, the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +