Please read the passage before reading the commentary.
Advent denotes a season for coming. God is coming. Why is God coming? God is coming to destroy, not us nor sinners, but death itself. God is coming to put an end to death.
It takes effort to keep the head above water. It is easy to drown in water. We need special training to be able to survive in water. It is not so with mountains. It is easy to stand on mountains. It is easy to breathe on mountains rather than to breathe in water. Mountains were considered in ancient times as the most solidly created things in the universe. Water, however, was considered as the flimsiest part of creation.
It is on the mountain, the sturdiest place on earth, that God prepares the banquet for us. The Lord will feed us on the mountain, not with roots and berries that we have foraged, nor with a simple picnic lunch. The Lord has prepared an extravagant wedding banquet for us.
Feast your eyes, your thoughts and your aspirations on this banquet. God is preparing this for all peoples, for them, for you, and for me. In this season of the Lord’s coming, look at the party God has in store for us. The hand of the Lord rests on this mountain, to which God calls all of us, in order to save us. God always comes to save; we often see God’s coming as condemnation, a cause for terror and fear. God is stronger than our sin and will never be defeated by our sin. When God comes to prepare a banquet, a banquet for us is what we get.
The Lord has spoken. So let it be done.
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