“On the Mountain”
Exodus 24:9-18 Matthew 17:1-9
Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu…and the seventy elders of Israel went up the mountain. There…they saw God. It was the most glorious thing they had ever seen or ever would see. To catch even a simple glimpse of God is to behold a beauty that is dazzling beyond all imagination and perfect beyond all thought. Therefore…seeing God was all that these men could ever want. But…they were given a further privilege…”they saw God, and they ate and drank.”
Our Bibles don’t indicate what Israel’s leaders ate and drank…in any more detail than it tells us what they saw. Maybe they consumed what was left of the fellowship offerings they had sacrificed to the Lord. Maybe they shared bread and water together…or maybe it was bread and wine. But…whatever they ate and drank…it was a meal of covenant fellowship. In those days it was common for people making a covenant to sit down and share a meal together afterward. Breaking bread was a symbolic act of friendship. Israel’s leaders eating and drinking on the mountain showed that they had fellowship with God…and with each other.
Few things create a greater sense of fellowship than sharing a meal. There is something about eating and drinking with other people that fosters friendship. The power of a meal to bring people together is vividly shown in “Babette’s Feast,” a film set around a dinner table. In the film a master chef living in exile from Paris in a small Danish fishing village spends her fortune to prepare an elaborate feast. Although her guests are generally cantankerous and unkind… the feast forms a setting for the restoration of old friendships…the rekindling of old loves…and the reconciliation of old enemies. Meals have a way of bringing people together. Any gathering is more intimate when people share foods. This is why it is so important for households to make the dinner table a central part of their daily routine. This is also why Thanksgiving dinner holds such a prominent place in American culture. Sharing a meal is a powerful symbol of belonging. We feel it every Wednesday evening…every Lord’s Acre Day.
Think about the significance of the prophet…the priests and the elders of Israel eating and drinking with God…and it happened as part of a public worship. This chapter of Exodus describes a covenant worship service. The service included a call to worship…the reading of God’s word…a confession of faith…and the sprinkling of sacrificial blood. Then…the whole thing concluded with a sacramental meal…the sharing of food and drink that symbolized communion with God. First God invited the leaders of Israel to worship. He spoke to them through the Word…and they responded in faith, promising to obey. But their obedience could never be perfect; so God provided a sacrifice for their sin. Finally…God invited Israel’s representatives to sit down for a meal of covenantal friendship. Atonement had been made for their sin…and now the way was clear for them to have table fellowship. They not only saw God. They also ate and drank with him.
The theme of eating and drinking with God runs throughout Scripture. The Bible often describes our relationship with God in terms of sharing a meal. The idea is present in the ancient patriarchs. Abraham is the earliest example. He welcomed a divine angel to his tents for dinner. He welcomed strangers. King David said…”You prepare a table before me.” Isaiah promised that one day God would sit down with his people at a great banquet.
Then Jesus came to be the King…and he described his kingdom in terms of eating and drinking. He said that it was like a great banquet: “many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was saying that the prophecy had come true…there is a place for everyone at his table. He is not only the King of Israel…he came to rule the world. So…his covenant meal isn’t just for Moses and the elders anymore…or even just for the Israelites. It’s for people all over the world.
God is always busy handing out invitations to his feast. Every time the gospel is preached…people are invited to eat and drink with God. God is getting ready to throw the last and longest banquet of all…what the book of Revelation calls the “wedding supper of the lamb.” The way to RSVP for that great banquet is to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. One day God will welcome everyone who trusts in Jesus to sit down at the feast that will never end.
Even now the final preparations are being made. While we are waiting for the announcement that dinner is ready…God has given us a special meal to remind us that we belong to him by covenant. This meal is the Lord’s Supper.
What all the covenant feasts show us is that God wants to have a relationship with each of us. He invites us to sit down with him…to share a meal. He offers us the kind of intimate fellowship we have with our closest family and friends when we sit down together around the dinner table.
Is this the kind of relationship that you have with God? Do you have such a close friendship that it’s like sitting down to eat and drink…to truly fellowship with God? There was a time in my life when God was nothing more than a distant force that would strike me if I even got close to temptation or to doing wrong. What a difference fellowship has made.
The way to have this kind of relationship with God is Jesus Christ. Jesus said…”Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. Jesus is ready and waiting to sit down with us at the table. Has your heart been “strangely warmed” by his knocking…by his invitation…like that of John Wesley…like mine?
Let us also be like Peter…James and John. It’s quite clear that they truly enjoyed that mountain top experience. They wanted to stay. My guess is that at some time…perhaps more than once…in your Christian journey…you have felt as Peter, James and John felt that day. Your mountaintop experience may have been on a retreat…at a particular worship service…a Sunday school outing…a celebration of wedding or baptism… or a fellowship gathering. You felt close to God…to Jesus Christ…and didn’t want it to end. You didn’t want to leave…go back down the mountain…into the routine and challenges of daily life.
You see…Peter…James and John…did leave that mountain. They returned to the challenges of daily life. They used that mountaintop experience as inspiration to be a part of God’s work on earth…taking God’s word and love to the world.
That mountaintop experience is a gift that God gives us to provide strength for the daily ministry and to enable us to walk the way of the Christian in a world that is not yet Christian. Susanna Wesley had a prayer: “Help me, Lord, to remember that religion is not to be confined to the church or closet, nor exercised only in prayer and meditation, but that everywhere I am in thy presence.”
As you know…I was blessed with a mountain top experience last month…as I toured the Holy Land with a group of Christians…most of whom I did not know when the trip started. We experienced fellowship throughout the trip…at meals…on the tour bus…at the tour sites…and in worship. At the end of the trip…at the site of the Garden Tomb… we gathered at the Lord’s Table…a mountain top experience on top of the week of mountain top experiences.
On that mountaintop I was renewed…not transfigured as Jesus was…but renewed…asking myself how I can be more as Jesus and Susanna Wesley described…taking my religious experience to those around me…transforming the world through God’s word and God’s love. I came away committed to reading my Bible again…from start to finish…one chapter a day…absorbing and meditating on the words of the Bible study guide and John Wesley’s notes on that chapter. Then asking myself…and God…”How am I doing?”… asking God to use the words of that chapter and the study notes to show me ways to fix where I fall short…ways to increasingly take His word and His love to our hurting community and world…people who are not on the mountain top.
“How am I doing?” That’s the question I’ve asked you to consider as we studied the Sermon on the Mount the last few weeks. Now, as we approach Lent…a time of traditionally giving up something…a time that ends with the celebration of the risen Lord who has promised to be with us always…perhaps instead of the traditional giving up of something…we can add something that helps us hear this answer to the “How am I doing” question.
“Well done, good and faithful servant.”