The Mountain

Reflect

1. What do humans gain from being with God on the mountain?
2. Why does it prove challenging for humans to be on the mountain with God?
3. How does Jesus bring God’s mountain presence to his people?

Script

The First Mountain (00:00-00:37)

In the ancient imagination, the mountain was where the sky touched down on the land, a place where God's wisdom and power and very presence could be found.

The Bible begins with God placing humanity on that kind of mountain, appointing them to oversee the land and fill it with God's blessing. To remain on the mountain, they must trust in God's wisdom. But humanity chooses their own wisdom instead. So they are driven from the mountain. And instead of God's abundance, they fill the land with violence.

Meeting God on the Mountain (00:38-01:52)

But God promises to restore his blessing to all nations through the offspring of one infertile couple. He invites Abraham up to the mountain to give him this blessing. But first, Abraham must give up his promised son. The only way back up the mountain is to lose what we call life and receive back the true life that God offers.

Abraham's family grows and God invites all of them up onto the mountain. But from below, the mountain is frightening. Only Moses goes up to learn God's wisdom. So God's mountain presence comes down instead to live in Israel's camp.

Now the mountain travels with them, and they're invited to live by God's wisdom wherever they go. When King David establishes a city on a tall hill, Israel's prophets imagine that this could truly become the mountain with a king who would rule in God's wisdom and restore the blessing to all the nations. But once again, Israel spirals into violence and is driven from their home.

Where Heaven Meets Earth (01:53-02:46)

And so God comes down instead. Jesus enters the world as one of us, teaching his followers how to live by God's wisdom, sharing the abundance of God's mountain with Israel and with the nations.

And when Jesus faces his own choice, he trusts God, his Father, with his very life. And through his surrender, the risen Jesus becomes the place where Heaven and Earth meet.

He is enthroned on the heavenly mountain, offering life and wisdom and power. And he invites his people to ascend, to choose God's wisdom so that through them, God's blessing can flow out to all the land.