Lead Me to Calvary
Lead Me to Calvary
Exodus 19:16-17
On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.
I’m trying to put myself in Moses’ shoes here, trying to tremble with the quaking rock that towers overhead, but I just can’t. The imagery, the language, the visual descriptions grab me like tornado winds and thrust me elsewhere, to a different place and time, to a grander theophany, and the whole scene is transfigured before me.
On the morning of the third day. It’s a quiet, eerie morning; there’s an uneasy hush over the town; the sun hasn’t yet risen, but there’s a little candle burning in a kitchen and a woman is hurriedly preparing balms. She slips out the door and disappears into the shadows, unnoticed by a sleeping world.
There were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain. The room is pitch black; eleven men sit in silence, not knowing what to say. A storm is suffocating the atmosphere and the Teacher isn’t here to calm this one. The winds are pounding on the rudders of their faith, despair has darkened their expressions, and the light of the world seems gone now.
The Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. The woman runs to the foot of the mountain, to a tomb there at the base, to the very foundation of the world, but it’s empty. So she weeps, and cries out agonizingly, but Heaven’s voice whispers back, “Mary!” and the word embalms her spirit in the presence of God once more!
And they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. The men get the news; some try to outrun the others to the tomb; some don’t believe the word; but Christ comes for them just the same. He walks right through the walls to meet them—the outer walls and the inner ones—reaches out His wounded hands and carries them all the way to the Zion where they stand in His love forever.
Friend, whenever I step foot on Sanai I get transported to Calvary. And there’s no going back from there!