Reading a story is fun, but it can get even better when you get to pick what the hero does at key moments in the story, like the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books I read as a kid and my kids now love. Some games begin by choosing what kind of character you want to play as: Do you want to be a warrior or a wizard, a thief or a hero? In the game of life, we must pick our character, too, and our character’s attributes determine our story. In this year’s Vacation Bible School, we compared life to a game or story where you choose your character, build them out with the right attributes, then follow the quest by making choices along the way that decide the story’s ending. This year, our theme here at North is “Take Time to Be Holy,” so our Vacation Bible School theme asked, “How do we live that out?” The word “holy” means “set apart” or “special.” God is different from anything or anyone else. And he sets people apart for his work when they decide to follow him. In the stories of two mountains — one representing the Old Covenant and the other the New — we see how our choices can lead us to God, as we follow Him on our holy quest.

Moses on the Mountain

One day, Moses was on a mountain with his sheep when he saw something strange — a bush on fire, but the fire didn’t burn it up. It wasn’t a normal fire; it was fire from God’s glory. Wherever God is, whatever God chooses is special or holy. This place was so holy, the Lord told Moses “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exod. 3:5). Then he told him to go deliver his people. So he led the people out of Egypt and brought them back to that same mountain where he saw the burning bush. There God made ALL of Israel holy, and said, “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:5-6). While on that mountain, God gave Moses plans for a tabernacle — a royal tent where God could have a throne on earth and meet with people. He gave instructions for priests to serve before him, coming close to his throne daily to tend to his altars, his table, and his lamp. To have the tent of God in their midst, all the people of Israel needed to be purified and change their lives to reflect God’s holiness. For God to be with us, we need to be like God, and be made clean by God. He said, “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:15). Be different and let God’s goodness show the way. 

At VBS, the kids walked through a model temple, seeing how each part of the tabernacle points to our service to God in the church today. We’re his priests now (1 Pet. 2:5-9), worshiping before him and teaching others to follow him. We saw how, now, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are the temple. Previously, only one family from a single tribe, from a single nation, could serve as a priest before God. Now, anyone who chooses to follow God from any nation can serve him. Before it was lots of sacrifices, constantly keeping up with our sins, but now Jesus has offered a “once for all” sacrifice (Heb. 10:10). Before they needed constant cleansing, but now there is one baptism by which our past sins are washed away (Acts 22:16) and we enter a new relationship as God’s children, walking with him in the light (1 John 1:7).  

Jesus on the Mountain

In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus elevated and explained the instruction Moses gave Israel, teaching us all to choose to be a special, different kind of people. We’ll have a “blessed,” joyful journey, if we take on the attributes Jesus describes, building a character that’s poor in spirit, as a meek peacemaker, hungering and thirsting for righteousness (Matt. 5:3-12). Then our good lives will start to shine like a light in a dark world (Matt. 5:13-16), showing others the way to God. Jesus takes the famous phrase God spoke to Moses, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” and gives it a different word. But Jesus isn’t changing the standard from holiness to something else. Holiness is a forever part of God’s character and his calling to his people. And he certainly isn’t softening the standard to make it easy, as he makes clear in 5:20-48. So what is he doing? Jesus doesn’t want to get rid of what Moses and the Old Testament prophets taught; he came to “fulfill” it (Matt. 5:17-20), so he teaches us how to apply it thoroughly, leveling up our character and integrating the principles behind the teaching into whole lives of holiness.

So what does Jesus emphasize here? Jesus says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). The concept of the Greek word for “perfect” (teleios) is famously challenging to translate. It doesn’t mean “perfect” as in flawless (like, “never make a mistake or you’re out”) but “perfect” as in “complete.” So Jesus takes the familiar, sacred charge to “be holy like God is holy,” and intensifies it with what that requires — “be whole” like God is whole. Completely integrate God’s goodness into all aspects of your life. It’s a key to the ethic of the entire sermon, especially the sections on either side of this statement. In the immediate context, he says not just to love your friends, but to bring that same love into your whole life, even loving your enemies (Matt. 5:38-48). Right before that, he told people to have integrity in their commitments, letting every “yes” be a “yes” (Matt. 5:33-37). He said not just to avoid adultery or murder, but to be faithful and patient in your heart too (Matt. 5:21-32).

The next section of the sermon challenges us not just to be righteous when people are looking, but to let that holiness fill the WHOLE of our lives (Matt. 6:1-18). Each of these ethics clarifies moments of choice in our daily lives. However, Jesus says that ultimately, it’s all just one big choice, because either we serve God or we don’t (Matt. 6:24). Therefore, the last part of the sermon is a challenge to choose (Matt. 7:13-27). Don’t just hear his words, but do them, because that will determine the end of our story — life or destruction (Matt. 7:13-14; 24-27). God will help us, but we get to choose who we will be and how our story will end.