Are you Afraid of Heights?

Exodus 24:9-18

Are you afraid of heights? I kinda am. Ironically, I love to fly. I love getting up in airplanes. I think that’s really cool. But I don’t like heights much. So when I was back in college, three of my classmates and I went to St. Louis to help a congregation, brand new congregation in St. Peter, Missouri, to do some outreach work during our spring break. And on our day off, we went to the St. Louis Arch. And now remember, this is in like 1987, I think, if my memory is, if I’m doing the math right. So it’s just a little foggy. But we went there to the arch, and we went up into it. And of course, it’s an arch. And so you can’t like have an elevator. It doesn’t work that way. Instead, you had these like car things, and you’d go up a few slots, and then you go over a few slots, and you go up a few, and then you go over a bit. And you did this herky-jerky thing all the way up to the top. For somebody who’s not that interested in heights, that was a little unnerving in and of itself. Well, then you get out, and you can walk around on top of the arch. And I don’t know how big it is. I don’t really remember for sure, but I don’t know, maybe about as wide as our church here. And on the edges, the walls are slanted, and there are windows. And so, not being all that happy about heights, I’m kind of doing one of these numbers, just sort of peeking over so I can kind of try to see down a little bit and see what’s going on down there. And one of my buddies came up behind me, and he shoves me against the window. I had made the mistake of telling them that I was a bit afraid of heights, and they just thought it would be hilarious to push me down against the window. I don’t remember much else about the St. Louis Arch other than that. So why talk about this? Why bring up heights? There’s two reasons. There’s lots of heights that are mentioned in our readings for today, aren’t there? Mountain tops. Transfiguration was on a high mountain. Usualites are at Mount Sinai. Secondly, the book of Exodus is organized into three sections. And we’re at the end of the middle section, chapters 19 through 24. And in chapter 19, the word go down occurs seven times. Here in chapter 24, the word go up occurs seven times. It’s God balancing him coming down to the Israelites with the Mount Sinai event, the first one, with God now opening the door for humans to be able to go up to him. That door will have to spend a lot of time before it gets fully open. It’s gonna be the work of Jesus. But God is ultimately opening up the door to go up. Was Moses afraid of heights? Let’s put ourselves into context. The Israelites have come out of Egypt, passed through the Red Sea. God’s guided them through the Sinai Desert. He’s brought them now to Mount Sinai. God then appeared to them in a way that was spectacular. The top of Mount Sinai was covered with fiery clouds. It was God revealing his glory. There was a trumpet blast. There was God’s voice speaking. The people are terrified. They say to Moses, “You go up and speak to God. “We don’t want to, we’re afraid to.” And God allows it. God calls Moses up to the mountain, and God speaks to him. God had spoken orally the 10 commandments to all the people on top of the mountain. God unpacked it with all the various laws for his people. Many of them we would call societal laws because, remember, the people were to be ruled by God. God was to be the governor of their state. And so God had to give them laws about things like stealing, murder, and all that kind of stuff that we would find in our code of laws. And then Moses comes back down the mountain to the people, and he reads all of this to the people. And the people respond by saying, yeah, that’s what we want. We will do everything the Lord has said. And so now there’s going to be what one commentator calls the most important event that happened in the entire Old Testament, the covenant ratifying ceremony. Moses builds 12 pillars to serve as kind of altars, also representing the people of God. Bowls are sacrificed, and the blood is caught in basins, deep bowls. Half of that blood gets splashed against the 12 pillars. Half of it gets actually splashed on the people themselves. It is God and the people covenating with one another, the people saying, we are gonna be your people and what you want us to do, we will do. And it was God saying, I am going to be your God. I will be faithful to you always. I claim you as my own people. Absolutely amazing and astounding. And it’s right after that that our text takes place. And what does God invite them to? A meal. He invites the 70 elders of Israel, along with Moses, Joshua, and Aaron, and her. And they eat, and they drink. Did God eat and drink along with him? Maybe. It almost seems as if Jesus has taken on pre-incarnate Christ form because as they’re there, they see this wild sapphire-like pavement in the sky and God’s feet on it. Was Jesus already taking on his human, or using his human form? Maybe. But it’s amazing. Why eating? Why do they have a meal? Probably because they’re celebrating this covenant. We’re united. We’re one. God and humans connected in this wonderful promise of fellowship and of loyalty to one another for all their lives and forever. And oh, so often things like that are sealed with what? A meal. And so God allows them to eat and to drink. And then? And then God says, “Hey Moses, you need to come on up the mountain.” God says to Moses, “You need to come on up the mountain.” Oh, by the way, what does that mountain look like? Raging fiery clouds. As I said, as I read the text, that the Hebrew literally says that it looked as if the fiery clouds were eating the top of the mountain. And God says to Moses, “Yeah, hey Moses, come on up.” Are you afraid of heights if you’re Moses? I think I might’ve been. And up he goes, and it seems as if he and Joshua only go partway and then God lets him set for six days. That’s a lot of thinking time. And you’ve got the glory of God out there right in front of you. Oh, so visible. What’s Moses thinking about during those days? The Bible doesn’t tell us, but maybe some guesses. Did Moses perhaps think about that first time he had had to leave Egypt? Oh, so ingloriously as he flees the country as a murderer? Did he maybe think about the first time that God appeared to him at Mount Sinai in that burning bush and how Moses had responded? Oh, Lord, but what if they say this? Oh, Lord, but what if they ask me this? Oh, Lord, but what if they say this? Oh, Lord, can’t you just send somebody else? What? Think Moses might have been a little afraid of heights of going up into the presence of God? I know I would have been. Were Peter, James, and John afraid of heights? Were they afraid to go up on that mountain with Jesus? I’m guessing not at the beginning. But, oh, man, did things change when they got to the top, huh? [BLANK_AUDIO] And all of a sudden, Jesus is glorious, and his face is shining like the sun, and his clothes are as bright as the light, and Moses and Elijah are there. And then comes the clouds, just like at Mount Sinai. And then comes the voice. This is my son, whom I love. With him I am well pleased. Listen to him. What do you think Peter was thinking about? I’m gonna take a guess. It was just about a week before this that Peter had taken Jesus aside. Jesus was telling the disciples about his upcoming suffering and death. And Peter had taken Jesus aside and rebuked him. Can you imagine a human, sinful human being is rebuking the powerful, almighty, all-knowing God? And now this voice is talking to him from the cloud, saying, this is my son whom I love. Listen to him. And Peter has got to be thinking about, my goodness, what was I thinking about? What was I doing? I was rebuking him. Am I an idiot or what? Yes. And man, we see ourselves, don’t we? You, of course, know what happened with the Israelites, oh so soon after that wonderful covenant ratifying ceremony is not even two months later that they’re bowing down to the golden calves and engaging in sexual morality. They promised their faithfulness; they failed spectacularly. How often don’t you and I pledge our faithfulness to God and then fail so spectacularly? How often, like Peter, don’t we question the words of God? Seriously? That a sinful human being like me would question the words of the almighty God? How dare we? How often, like Moses, don’t we find ourselves waffling and making excuses and wanting God to just send it to somebody else? You afraid of heights? You afraid to go up to face God? If you’re not, you better pinch yourself. Thank God that the transfiguration event comes to an end. All of a sudden, the disciples look up, and it’s just normal Jesus, if that’s the way to talk about him, I don’t know. But it’s only Jesus, and the clouds are gone, and the glory is gone, and Moses and Elijah are gone, and there’s no voices. And then Jesus says to them, hey guys, let’s keep this to ourselves until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead. Death? They’ve just seen his glory. What does death have to do with him? Thank God it has everything to do with him. Can you imagine? The same all-powerful God who is there at Mount Sinai with fire and glory, and eating the top of the mountain. The same transfiguration Jesus who reveals his glory on the mount. He walked to a whole nother height. The mount you call Calvary. And there what happened? He was lifted up. Was he afraid of heights? Thank God, no. Thank God he was willing to go to that Mount Calvary. Thank God he was willing to be lifted up. Why? Because that’s how God made the ultimate covenant with you. That’s how God paid for the sins of the world. That’s how God paid for the Israelites’ unfaithfulness and Moses’s waffling and Peter’s arrogant rebuking and questioning. And yours and my fill in whatever blanks you need to fill in. Jesus paid for every single bit of it at the cross. He went up. He went up to that mountain because he loves you and because he loves me. And so now if God were to say to us, are you afraid of heights? In other words, are you afraid to come up to me? And we were to say, yeah, God can respond by saying not any longer. Because everything that makes you afraid, Jesus paid for. And every obstacle that stood in the way between you and me, Jesus removed it. And he removed it completely, and he removed it forever. And so are we afraid of heights? Thanks be to God. The answer is no way. And the answer is no way because of Jesus. Amen.