A New Approach

First, let me be clear. When we travel, Chris always plans our trips. But before we go on a trip, I like to consult Trip Advisor. What are the top things to see and do? Where are the best places to eat? If we are driving, I like to map our route and see what cities and sites lie along our journey. Where should we stop? And sometimes just as important, for what stretches of road should I plan not to need to stop?

This final section of Hebrews, remember is a letter, written about 30 years after Jesus’s death and resurrection. The people who met him, the eye witnesses, were almost all gone, and he still hadn’t returned. The next generation is having a hard time holding on. The term Hebrews is another term for Jewish people; they were still Jews. They still practiced the Jewish faith, went to synagogue, traveled to the Temple in Jerusalem – they were also part of a sect within Judaism, not unlike being a Pharisee or a Sadducee, they were followers of “The Way,” only the way of Judaism and the way of Jesus were diverging. Which path would they take? The writer of Hebrews is offering them two courses, reminding them of the course of their ancestors and the way blazed by Jesus, and encouraging them to remain strong, to stick with the marathon of the Jesus Way. Some of these believers were struggling with doubt; some are facing family conflict because of being a Jesus follower. It seemed easier to return to their Jewish roots, to turn around from the Way of Jesus and return to the faith of their ancestors.

So, the writer of Hebrews reminds them of the reality of the faith of their ancestors. “Remember when God freed the Israelites from Egypt? When they got across the Red Sea into the desert, they had no idea how to function as a nation. As slaves, they had always been controlled by their masters. Their days consisted of an overseer telling them, “Get up, go to work, make bricks, eat this, now go to sleep.” There were no decisions. They had no choices when they were slaves. Once God freed them, though, they needed guidance. So, God gave them ten rules to live by. Remember how that happened? First, God told Moses that the Israelites needed to be prepared, to purify themselves for three days and wash their garments. Remember how God told Moses, “tell the people, “Be careful that you do not cross the boundaries and go up on the mountain or even touch the edge of it. If anyone so much as touches the mountain, he should be put to death.’ God said that when they heard the long blast of the ram’s horn, then they were permitted to make their way up on the mountain. When the morning of the third day arrived, thunder cracked and lightning lit up the sky. A thick cloud veiled the mountain, and there was a long, loud blast of a ram’s horn. Every person in the camp trembled. Moses led the anxious people away from camp to encounter God. Everyone waited at the base of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered in thick smoke and the smoke of that fire rose up to the sky – it looked like it was billowing out of a furnace, and the entire mountain shuddered and quaked. The blast of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder. Moses spoke, and God answered with a voice that rumbled like thunder. Our ancestors heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. The Lord declared to Moses his covenant, the Ten Commandments, and the people were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.

That’s not the situation anymore, says the writer of Hebrews. He is reminding them of the way it was to say, “You really don’t want to go back there! Look how it is now.” Christ has blazed a new way. It is the same God; just as holy. Now, though, God’s holiness isn’t terrifying. Being able to approach God no longer depends on your ability, or honestly, inability to cleanse yourself. God’s holiness is now welcoming, cleansing, and healing (NT Wright).

That is not to say that this is a “come as you are” party. There is a new way to get ready to approach the mountain. Instead of spending three days purifying themselves, those who come allow God to cleanse them, to transform them.

The whole way to God has transformed. Remember the story of Adam and Eve’s sons, Cain and Abel? Cain killed Abel, and Abel’s blood, spilled on the ground, cried out for vengeance. The whole system of purifying oneself was based on blood sacrifice. The blood that is crying out now isn’t Abel’s blood crying for vengeance, but the sprinkled blood of Christ crying out for pardon.

See to it that you don’t refuse the invitation. You can take the course up to the mountain that is marked Sinai and travel alone, or you can take a new approach, a course up to the mountain that is marked Zion and follow Jesus.

There’s a “Peanuts” comic strip, with Linus pushing Lucy on a swing as he reads. “It says here,” he tells Lucy, “that the world revolves around the sun once a year.” “The world revolves around the sun?” she asks. You can see by the two little lines by her eyes that she is confused; Linus pushes her again. “Are you sure?” How could this be? “I thought it revolved around me.”

It isn’t that God reconciled us to himself in Jesus and now the world revolves around us and our wishes. It isn’t that the life of the faithful is easy street. The writer of Hebrews says, “God is going to take the world – heaven and earth – and shake it out one more time, and all that will remain is what cannot be shaken.”

The image that comes to my mind is shaking out the back doormat, knocking off the leaves and the dust and the little bits from the bottoms of shoes; what is left stuck on makes me keep shaking until I get it all off.

What is God trying to shake off in your life? Will you allow God to cleanse you? To prepare you to be in God’s presence?

Check Trip Advisor, and choose your route. The destination hasn’t changed. God is still holy. Jesus has blazed a new course, a new approach, an approach that doesn’t require us to purify ourselves, but to allow God to purify us. Therefore, let us be grateful and worship God with reverence and awe.