But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24, NKJV).
Most of us are stuck.
We are held fast to the world by the things of the world and our perceptions are centered on the world. This is as natural and understandable as can be, but so is sin and death. Understandable does not make something right or beneficial or good.
To a certain extent, of course, our geocentric viewpoint is almost invisible, like the air we breathe and walk through. It is so much a part of our human nature, and so pervasive, that it is almost too difficult to notice and call it a thing.
Again, that doesn't make it right, just harder to change.
The passage above from Hebrews is written to remind us that we Christians inhabit two worlds, and have two natures. We are slowly, but surely, being weaned and transformed from the one, so that we can be full citizens of the other. Sometimes the transformation hurts, and we reflexively resist, but the more we resist, the more painful it becomes.
At other times, the shift in perspective and essential nature is so subtle we don't even notice until suddenly it seems a veil is ripped from our eyes and we see things as they really are, as we KNOW they must really be - without doubt or shadow - and the shock and awe lays us flat on our faces.
In turn, this may lead to a compulsion to repent in dust and ashes, like Job or Peter or Isaiah, when God grants us a view of Himself, as He really is. That is indeed a good, if terrifying, thing.
But be assured, however it happens, we who are Christ's are being conformed to His image by whatever it takes, because He WILL finish that good work He has begun in us, whether kicking and screaming, or in trusting surrender.
For our citizenship is in Heaven, and the contrast between Heaven and earth is what the text above is emphasizing; that, in fact, all of Hebrews has been emphasizing by extolling and detailing the superiority of Christ to all that has come before and could ever come in the future.
Instead of Mount Sinai, an earthly location where the Law of sin and death was given in fire and darkness, we - through faith in Christ, have come to Mount Zion, a place in an altogether different realm, a realm that makes our present three dimensional existence in time and space a mere shadow, a vapor, in comparison to where we are destined to spend all eternity.
In this life, in the world where Mount Sinai exists, the dwelling places are man-made, mundane, faulty. Our cities are filled with corruption and decay, however deceivingly presentable they may appear on the surface.
There, in the life to come,upon Mount Zion, is the city of the living God; a place fashioned by Him for His glory. The very phrase should send thrills of pleasure and anticipation through the very core of our being.
To be in the loving Presence of the living God is an inbuilt longing in each and every soul, corrupted and disguised by sin, but cleansed and reborn when we come in faith to Christ. As His children, made alive together with Him, the poignant longing for that something - that someplace - that cannot be adequately described or imagined, fills our hearts with an unspeakable (because there are no words) and holy desire.
This verse in Hebrews at least puts a name to it - the city of the living God, and will provide us with a further glimpse of what that place entails - its glory, perfection, and majesty.
But this one final thought is, for me, the most comforting, the most reassuring, the most astounding.
This city of the living God is our one, true, home.
