ON TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

 

Have you ever taken a ride on the Duquesne Incline? You should do that sometime. We took our grandchildren there at the end of December. The Duquesne Incline is the top tourist attraction in Pittsburgh, and it only costs a few dollars to ride from bottom to the top where you have a gorgeous view of Pittsburgh.

I mention that because in our Gospel today (Matt 5:1-12), Jesus went up the mountain to teach his disciples and all who gathered around him. Do you know why Jesus went up the mountain to teach? It’s where God taught his people.

God spoke to Abraham on the mountain (Gen 22). God called Moses to the mountain and gave him the Ten Commandments on stone tablets (Exod 24). In Isaiah, God said that all peoples will flow to the mountain of the Lord’s house (ch 2). Scripture tells us that God can make the mountains shake, melt and disappear (Ps 18; 87; Isa 54).

In the New Testament, we read of how Jesus was tempted on the mountain by the devil (Matt 4:8-9). On another mountain, Jesus was transfigured, that is, he turned dazzlingly white, as he spoke to Moses and Elijah (Mark 9). Jesus went to the mountains to pray (Luke 6:12). He even went to Mount Olive (Matt 24:3).

When you are at the top of the mountain, you can see so much that it makes you think how small the world is. It makes me think of how tiny I am, and how awesome God is. It makes me think how small my ideas and opinions are, and how great God’s Law and Gospel are.

The next time you have a chance to look down from a mountain, remind yourself of all the times we read about mountains in the Bible and how people, including Jesus, went there to listen to God teach them how to love Him and others. With that, let us pray.

 Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless all children, and give their fathers and mothers the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.