Do you know what a “false” summit is? A false summit is a lesser peak on a mountain. It looms large from lower elevations giving hikers the impression that once they reach the top of that peak they will have conquered the mountain. Of course that’s not the case. The false summit just blocks the view of the true summit. And no hiker would settle for the views from the false summit when the true summit still beckoned, would they? (Sermon Studies on the Epistles Series C, p. 270)
That was the question the author of our text asked the Jewish Christians to whom he was writing. These Christians, who perhaps included former temple priests, were in danger of leaving Christianity to go back to Judaism. One reason is that Judaism with all its temple rituals and sacrifices seemed so much more inspiring than Christianity. But this was the author’s encouragement to them: “Don’t leave your glorious perch! Mt. Sinai, where the sacrificial laws had been given, was just a stopping place. Mt. Zion, on the other hand, is the true summit and it’s your home.” Since we’re not Jewish, does this text have anything to say to us? Let’s find out.
When you hear of Mt. Sinai what image comes to mind? While you might not be able to picture what that mountain on the Sinai Peninsula looks like, you should be able to picture some of the things that took place there on the Israelites’ trek to the Promised Land. Mt. Sinai is where God met with Moses to give him the Ten Commandments and all the other regulations for the various rituals the Israelites were to follow. Our text speaks about the events that immediately preceded Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. It says that Mt. Sinai was on fire and covered in darkness, presumably from the smoke that billowed up from the mountain. A storm also swirled around the mountain. Anyone who has been caught in a forest fire or seen images of one can begin to imagine what a scary sight this must have been for the Israelites who stood at the base of Mt. Sinai.
But it wasn’t just what they saw that terrified the Israelites; it’s what they heard that scared them to death. They heard a trumpet blast growing louder and louder. And they also heard God speak. That so terrified them that they begged God to stop. It doesn’t seem that it was so much the sound of his voice that scared them; it’s what he said that was terrifying. “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned” (Hebrews 12:20). If this is what they were to do to uncomprehending animal that accidentally wandered onto Mt. Sinai, what would happen to any one of them that did the same thing? Even Moses was terrified at the thought (Hebrews 12:21b).
Fire. Smoke. Thunder. Trumpet blasts. Threats. What was God up to there at Mt. Sinai? God was simply being God. He appeared the way he did because he is holy and expects all his commands to be obeyed perfectly, without question or hesitation. God appeared the way that he did to the Israelites to impress upon them that the Ten Commandments he was about to give them were not the Ten Suggestions.
While Mt. Sinai was a false summit and only intended as a stopover place for the Israelites on the way to the Promised Land, it still is a place that we must all travel to if we want to reach the true summit. Spending time at Sinai is especially crucial in our day and age when most people view God as a benign grandfatherly figure who winks at sin. For if we think ignoring our parents is at worst only rude behavior, and that fooling around before marriage is part of the coming of age experience, or that complaining about our civil servants is our right, we need to hear God thunder. We need to see the smoke pour from his righteous anger at anyone who would dare think that his commands don’t apply to him or her. I mean if Moses, someone whom God described as the most humble man to ever live, trembled in God’s presence, shouldn’t we do the same? Do you tremble when you confess your sins at the beginning of our worship service? Or do you suppose we could do away with that practice because we all know we’re sinners anyway? Well God doesn’t just want us to admit that we are sinners, he wants us to tremble at that reality. If you’re having a hard time trembling, it’s time to go back to Mt. Sinai, to the smoke, to the fire, to the darkness, to the thunder and be reminded who God is.
While God does want us to spend time at Mt. Sinai, he doesn’t want us to forget that it’s only a false summit, a stopping place on the way to the true summit. That summit is called Mt. Zion and this is how our text describes it: “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, 23 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, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22-24).
Mt. Zion is the mountain on which the city of Jerusalem was built. Both Zion and Jerusalem are used in the Bible as pictures of heaven. So heaven is the true summit. It’s the peak that we all strive to gain. And how do we gain this summit. We don’t do so by our own efforts. No, the false summit of Mt. Sinai should have made that clear. God’s laws are like the demands of an NFL football scout; they exclude from the team all those who can’t meet the requirements of bench pressing 300lbs and running 40 meters under five seconds. While there are a few elite athletes that can meet those requirements, no one in the world has ever met God’s requirements of being perfect, that is except for Jesus. Jesus sacrificed his life while successfully climbing from the false summit to the true summit to secure a line to which we all have been clipped in. Through the blood of Jesus, Mt. Zion is now our home. Listen again to the way our text puts it: “you have come…24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22a, 24). How does the blood of Jesus speak a better word than the blood of Abel, the world’s first murder victim? While Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance, Jesus’ blood cries out for pardon. And God has granted us this pardon because he accepted Jesus’ blood as payment for our sins.
Through faith in Jesus we now stand on Mt. Zion. Check out the view again with me. Our text says: “you have come to… the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 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” (Hebrews 12:22, 23). Mt. Zion is a happy place, not a scary place like Mt. Sinai. On Mt. Zion thousands of angels gather in joyful assembly celebrating what the Lamb of God did to win forgiveness for all who broke Mt. Sinai’s commands. On Mt. Zion you’ll also see every believer in Jesus including all your loved ones who died in the faith. You’ll be reunited with them and together we’ll stand before God the judge of all. Wait a minute. I thought Mt. Zion was all about love and forgiveness. Why is God described as a judge? God is described as a judge because that’s what he is and always will be. But that doesn’t frighten us because the judge will find us not guilty of our sins since Jesus paid for them. Our text assures us of this when it says that on Mt. Zion are “…the spirits of righteous men [and women] made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23b).
Since Mt. Zion is such an awesome place why did the Jewish Christians want to leave this glorious perch and go back Mt. Sinai? Mt. Sinai was a dead end. The laws that God gave there could not connect sinners to him; they only condemned. Sure, there were elements of grace in the Old Covenant. The animal sacrifices all spoke of how God would accept a substitute for the payment of sin. Yet those sacrifices pointed ahead to the real sacrifice, Jesus. To go back to Mt. Sinai would be like stopping on a false summit even though a sign there clearly points to the true summit from which the view is glorious.
Although we may not be tempted to go back to sacrificing animals as were the Jewish Christians, we still face temptations to leave our glorious perch on Zion. Satan loves to make us think that by staying on Mt. Zion we’ll miss out on something exciting at the bottom of the mountain. He would have us leave our glorious perch to prance around the golden calf. That golden calf may be your pride that keeps you from apologizing. It may be your greed that closes your fist tightly around your wallet except for things you want. It may be your lust that makes you eager to fill your life with explicit images of others. Whatever the golden calf, listen to this warning the author gives after our appointed text: “See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?…28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our ‘God is a consuming fire’” (Hebrews 12:25, 28, 29).
No, God will not be mocked. If we leave our glorious perch for worldly excitement we invite God’s eternal judgment. So don’t scamper down Zion for some excitement that what won’t last. Mt. Zion is the true summit where everything is glorious and eternal. And Mt. Zion is your home. Be certain of this because you carry Zion’s citizenship papers written in the indelible ink of God’s grace and signed in the blood of Jesus (Richard Lauersdorf). Don’t throw those papers away. Don’t leave your glorious perch! Amen.
