"ASCENDING THE HILL"
Fourth Sunday in Advent
December 18, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Psalm 24:3-6 (ESV)
People these days are lot more relaxed about approaching God than they used to be. Some think that's a positive development, but I'm not so sure. Moses had to remove his sandals when the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush because he was standing on "holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). As Moses prepared to meet the Lord on Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, he was given these very serious instructions: "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, 'Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death'" (Exodus 19:10-12). The difference between the ancient Israelites and people today in their attitude toward approaching God begs the question: Are we more familiar with the Lord and bolder about approaching Him today because we are more aware of His grace and love toward us, or is it because we are less aware of His holiness and our sin?
In the passage of Scripture that serves as our sermon text for this morning the psalmist speaks of coming into Lord's presence in terms of ascending a mountain or holy hill. What he says here is somewhat reminiscent of what we just read in Exodus: that God is so great and so holy that mere sinful humans dare not approach Him casually or lightly. "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?" the psalmist asks. "And who shall stand in His holy place?" He then recites a list of requirements for those who would approach God--a list of requirements that none of us could even begin to meet. And yet the psalmist goes on to say that those who seek the Lord may indeed approach Him, come into His presence, and even enjoy fellowship with Him. How can this be? Let's spend these next few minutes listening to what the Word of God has to teach us in regard to approaching the Lord.
The first qualification mentioned here for someone desiring to "ascend the hill of the Lord" is that he be a person who "has clean hands." You can rest assured that this has nothing at all to do with hygiene but has everything to do with the matter of guilt or innocence. A person who is guilty of or responsible for violence is said to have blood on his hands. That's why Pontius Pilate made such a big production out of washing his hands in front of the crowd when he sentenced Jesus to death with the words: "I am innocent of this Man's blood; see to it yourselves" (Matthew 27:24). It was a feeble attempt on his part to deny any responsibility for the death of Jesus. But the man with genuinely "clean hands" is a man who is innocent of sinful deeds. This is what is required for a person to "ascend the hill of the Lord"--to enter the Lord's presence and have fellowship with Him. Who among us can claim to be innocent of sin? Certainly not me--nor anyone else I know. None of us has the "clean hands" that David is writing about here. All of us are guilty of sinful deeds, and therefore none of us is worthy of fellowship with God.
And even if our hands were "clean," so to speak, the text tells us that the person who is to enter the Lord's presence must also be a person with "a pure heart." Not only the actions of a person, but also his intentions and motivations must be innocent. This is one of the main issues that got Jesus into so much trouble with the religious leaders of His day. They were very good at emphasizing the deeds of the Law--right down to minutest detail. And as far as we can tell, they were also pretty good at carrying out these deeds in their own lives. But what Jesus exposed to them was that it was all a sham. Like so many people today, they were doing all of the right things for all of the wrong reasons. It's not enough for evil deeds to be avoided and good deeds to be done; this avoidance of evil and pursuit of good must be the result of a genuine and heartfelt devotion to God. Here again, there isn't a soul under heaven who can meet this requirement for approaching the Lord and surviving in His holy presence.
Despite the gloomy outlook for sinners like us, we are nevertheless told here that we are able to "ascend the hill of the Lord" and to "stand in His holy place," even though we are worthy of neither. We are told in the passage before us that we will receive "blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of [our] salvation." The Savior who has blessed us with His perfect righteousness is God Himself, who took on human flesh in order to declare us righteous through His own sinless life and sacrificial death on the cross. Because of what our Savior has done for us in love, we are cleansed of both our sinful deeds and our sinful intentions and are therefore able to survive in the Lord's presence. We are spared from the fatal consequences of our sin as it is confronted by the perfect justice of the holy God. Through the grace of Christ we are able to come into the Lord's presence with confidence and even joy instead of fear.
Not only has our Savior taken away the danger that our sin puts us in; He has also given to us all the blessings of salvation. In Him our sins are forgiven, not merely covered up or denied or temporarily ignored. And with that forgiveness we have been given also the ability and the desire to forgive in turn those who have wronged us. In the Gospel of our Savior (particularly in our Baptism) the Holy Spirit has given us the additional blessing of New Life in Jesus Christ: the motivation and the strength to live for God and others instead of living for ourselves--and the freedom of doing this not because we have to but because we want to. We are given a reason for living and for responding to the grace of God in Christ with good works that glorify His name and proclaim His love.
There is only one thing that can ruin this for us. The psalmist makes it very clear that there is no place among the redeemed people of God for "lift[ing] up [one's] soul to what is false" or "swear[ing] deceitfully." Every other god--every other hope--every other proposed way of salvation--every other source of confidence--is nothing more than an idol and a lie, no matter how wholesome or harmless these things may appear to be. There is no hope or salvation or confidence to be found in any of them--indeed in no one or nothing other than Jesus Christ. But because His hope--His salvation--His confidence is perfect, there is no need for us to look elsewhere. He alone can carry us out of every trial and difficulty to "the hill of the Lord," enabling us to "stand [forever] in His holy place. It is that hope and salvation and confidence, given to us in the Gospel of Christ, that characterizes us as "the generation of those who seek Him."
Amen.
May the One who once came as an Infant in Bethlehem prepare you for His coming again in glory by His Means of Grace, through which He comes to you even now. May He equip you to be His witnesses so that you, like the Baptist in the wilderness, may prepare the way of the Lord. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.