2008-10-12 Pentecost 22

Pentecost 22 “A Mountain Filled with Heavenly Food” Is. 25:6 “And on this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well-refined.” In the Name of Jesus. Amen. Heaven will be a glorious place! We don’t know all the details about heaven, but we know that it will be a GREAT DAY when we get there. The lesson from the prophet Isaiah describes heaven in a grand and glorious way: As a mountain filled with food and wine. We who live in the shadow of Longs Peak and the range of the Rocky’s can appreciate daily the majesty of mountains. We have the privilege of lifting our eyes up to the hills, which serve as a reflection of the glory of the Lord. But Isaiah is not speaking about Long’s Peak, or Mt. Everest or of just any mountain. He is speaking of a very specific mountain—we are told in 24:23 that this is Mount Zion, upon which sat the city of God—Jerusalem. Before David ever built Jerusalem, Mt. Zion was important. It was previously called Moriah, the mountain where Abraham took his only son Isaac to sacrifice. He was spared from doing so when the Lord sent a ram to take Isaac’s place. This event prefigured the sacrifice of the Only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. It was on this mountain, Zion, that the Lord Jesus was put on trial, condemned, and then crucified. It was there that the prophetic words of Isaiah were fulfilled—“He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, the veil that is 1

spread over all nations.” What is this covering? Sin. What is this veil? Verse 8 tells us: “He will swallow up death forever.” We were again reminded of this dark covering of death this past week, as our dear sister, Rose Groth, closed her eyes for the last time in this life—only to be opened eternally on the grand and glorious day of the Lord. Until that day comes we who remain here are sad and filled with sorrow. But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord that though we mourn, we do not mourn as those who have no hope—for we have the promise that God will wipe away our tears—a promise made not only here in Isaiah, but also in Rev. 21:4—a Promise sealed on the day that the seal on Christ’s tomb was found broken. Imagine the joy that the women had on that first Easter morning! Imagine the joy the disciples had when they saw the risen Lord! Imagine the joy you will have when you arrive in heaven. It’s not difficult to do. Some of you have climbed Long’s Peak, or other mountains. You know the sense of satisfaction, the euphoria that you feel when you have finished your trek, completed your quest, achieved your goal. That provides a hint for what it will be like to arrive at the eternal Mount Zion, the Heavenly Jerusalem. Listen to how the scene is described in Revelation: “then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mt. Zion, and with Him 144,000 . . . They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the son of the Lamb saying, ‘Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O king of the saints!” Some of you may remember our brother in the faith Don Philp. I visited with him shortly before he died, and I reminded him that The

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Lord Jesus had prepared a place for him in heaven, and soon he would be going there. “That will be a great day”, he said. Yes, that WILL be a great day—but not for everyone. For as the Lord Jesus reminds us in the Gospel lesson for today, many are called, but few are chosen. Not everyone will be dressed appropriately for the banquet feast to be given in honor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not everyone will be wearing the garments of salvation. And what are those garments? Baptismal robes washed in the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Robes of righteousness, reflecting not OUR good works, but the Good Work He has accomplished for us through His death on the cross. Listen again to the prophet Isaiah as he speaks specifically of this in the 61st chapter of his prophecy: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest.” \ Many people believe that they can gain entrance to the heavenly banquet hall based on who they are or what they’ve done. Most of the jokes you hear about heaven reflect this way of thinking. But the Scriptures are clear, Christ invites us to be His guest—and as such, we cannot hope to gain admittance by wearing the worn-out, sin-stained rags of works-righteousness—but only by putting on the baptismal garments of grace and faith in Christ Jesus. The heavenly scene from Revelation seven bears this out: “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.” (Have you see the movie “The pianist”? In it Adrien Brody plays the part of a concert pianist named Spielmann who is trying to survive 3

the terrors of living as a Jew in Poland during the evil reign of Adolph Hitler. Toward the end of the movie a German office befriends Spielmann, and in addition to food gives him his heavy Army overcoat. When the Russians liberate Warsaw, Spielman goes out to meet them— waving his arms. The Russian soldiers begin shooting at him. Why? He has on the officers coat. The end of the movie portrays him playing the piano in a packed concert hall. He is clean and well-dressed. Imagine, if you can, if he had appeared at that concert looking like he did as a refugee, wearing the coat of that German officer. He would have been driven away, and quite possibly killed. This serves as an illustration of our Lord’s words in the Gospel lesson. The coat depicts our own works—stained with sin. No one can gain admittance to the heavenly feast of the Lamb unless they are wearing the baptismal garments of salvation—which indicate saving faith in Christ Jesus the Lord. So what awaits us on the eternal mountain of the Lord? We have already alluded to what David in the 23rd Psalm, Isaiah in his prophecy, and the Lord Jesus in the Gospel lesson make clear: A feast beyond all imagination. I imagine that prior to the fall people could eat as much as they wanted of anything they wanted, and never worried about weight gain, diabetes, coronary artery disease, or any of the other afflictions that plague people today. Furthermore, the foods that were good for you, like broccoli and cauliflower, probably tasted like chocolate, and the foods that might be bad for you—like cake and pie—probably tasted like brussel sprouts.

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In heaven The Lord will prepare a table for us, one set with the finest of meats and wines. This is why it is not only appropriate, but important for the church on earth to gather for fellowship meals and potlucks and the like—for it is a little taste of heaven. If you have never been to one at PWC you are missing out—for we do it well! But really, it is not the type of food, or quantity of it that we eat in heaven that is important. What matters is that we are being fed by Jesus Christ, and that we are gathered around His throne. What a glorious setting that will be—to see the Lord Jesus, and to be gathered with all the other believers from throughout time and eternity—and to sit with them, and Him. Though the fullness will come when we enter into eternal life, we get a taste of it in this earthly life. For when we gather, as we will today, to eat the bread and wine which is the body and blood of the Lord, we are participating in a heavenly reality. For we gather as believers and with believers, as those who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb, around the throne of the lamb, in order to partake of the heavenly food that the lamb has prepared for us. That will be a great day! And it will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. In Jesus’ Name. Amen

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