Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Martin
Luther says about today’s Old Testament Reading, “This text is one of the most obscure
in the Old Testament.”
This
strange story of “Jacob at the Jabbok,” the patriarch Jacob wrestling through
the night with a mysterious man on the banks of the Jabbok River, is one of the
most peculiar and puzzling events in the whole Bible.
Jacob
is on his way home, on the other side of the Jabbok River. But, it is a homecoming fraught with fear and
danger. Today’s Hymn of the Day is
really a like a summary of all that happens to the patriarch Jacob in today’s
Old Testament Reading: “When in the hour of deepest need we know not where to
look for aid . . . days and nights of anxious thought . . . sorely tried, cast
down . . . perplexed by fears . . . to You, O faithful God, we cry for rescue
in our misery.”
St.
Paul says in today’s Epistle Reading: “No one should take advantage of and
defraud his brother.” But, Jacob’s homecoming is fraught with fear and danger
because many years before that is exactly what he had done, when he tricked his
older brother Esau, depriving him of his birthright as firstborn son. Jacob fled from his brother’s anger, to a
far-away country.
It
was on that journey Jacob had a dream, a vision of a stairway reaching to
heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it—what we call “Jacob’s
Ladder.”
In
the vision of Jacob’s ladder, the Lord promises that one of Jacob’s descendants
will be the Messiah, the Savior of the world: “All peoples on earth will be
blessed through you and your Descendant,” the Lord declares to Jacob.
That
promise came true in Jesus Christ. For,
he is the promised descendant of Jacob, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of
the Virgin Mary, Son of God and Son of Man, who for us men and for our
salvation came down from heaven and was made man. “All peoples on earth will be blessed through
you and your Descendant.”
All
peoples on earth are blessed through him.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in
him is not condemned.”
Your
altar window beautifully portrays how by his sacrifice on the cross he suffered
the punishment for the sins of the whole world.
In his body on the cross he suffered the punishment for YOUR sins. Because of his perfect life, his sacrificial
death, and his triumphant resurrection, God forgives YOU all your sins. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you
shall be saved.”
In
the vision of Jacob’s ladder, God also promised to be with Jacob and to bless
him. And God did bless Jacob abundantly
in that far-away land to which he fled, giving Jacob great wealth and a huge
family.
Now,
many years later, Jacob is returning home with a enormous caravan, of flocks,
and herds, servants, and family. But,
Jacob is terrified of going home to face his brother Esau, on the other side of
the Jabbok. Will Esau still hold a
grudge against him? Will he pay Jacob
back for his trickery and deceit? Will
he steal away Jacob’s flocks, herds, and servants—and then vent his anger on
Jacob’s family?
So,
Jacob sends messengers ahead to scout the situation, and they return with worst
possible news: Esau is on his way, and with him are four hundred armed
men. In great fear, Jacob cries out to
the Lord, “Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau! For, I am afraid he will come and attack me.”
To
help pacify Esau, Jacob sends ahead all his flocks, herds, and servants, as
gifts to his brother. Maybe by bribing
Esau this way, at least he and his family can escape with their lives.
At
the Jabbok River, in today’s Old Testament Reading, Jacob and his family stop
for the night, and his family crosses the river. The next morning Jacob will cross over to
confront Esau and his army. Like a
nervous soldier the night before a big battle, Jacob is dreading the dawn of
day. “So Jacob was left alone.” That is how “Jacob at the Jabbok” felt that
night: afraid, anxious, alone.
But,
Jacob was not alone. Years before in the
vision of Jacob’s ladder, the Lord promised to be with him and to bless him: “I
will be with you,” he said, “and will watch over you wherever you go. . . I
will not leave you,” the Lord promised.
Do
YOU sometimes feel like “Jacob at the Jabbok”: afraid, anxious, alone? Confronting your own tragedies and troubles
in life, that bring you to despair, like Jacob that night? But, like “Jacob at the Jabbok,” YOU really
are not alone. “Do not let your hearts
be troubled,” Jesus says. “Trust in God;
trust also in me. . . Surely, I am with
you always.”
“Jacob
at the Jabbok” needs reassurance that dreadful night, reassurance of God’s
love, forgiveness, and blessing. He
needs to FEEL God’s presence in a very REAL way. And, so, God sends him this time, not just a
dreamy vision, like when he saw Jacob’s ladder, but this time God sends him a
physical presence: “And a man wrestled with him till daybreak.”
Who
is this mysterious man who wrestles with Jacob?
Jacob puts it this way
“I
saw GOD face to face.” In this
mysterious, enigmatic event, it is God himself who appears like a man and
wrestles with “Jacob at the Jabbok.” It
is a physical reassurance to Jacob that God is with him; and an unforgettable
confidence builder for Jacob as he crosses the Jabbok River the next morning to
face Esau and his army.
All
through the night Jacob wrestles with the Lord.
“When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket
of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.”
By
simply touching Jacob’s hip, the Lord shows his power. He could easily have conquered Jacob at any
time in this wrestling match. When he
simply touches his hip, it’s wrenched out of place. But, instead the Lord allows Jacob to win the
struggle, even giving him the new name Israel, which means, “to struggle with
God.”
“Then
the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have
struggled with God and with men and have overcome.’”
All
of this was to reassure Jacob that God is on his side, to build up Jacob’s
confidence. For, if he is able to win
THIS struggle against God himself, surely he has nothing to fear the next
morning from his brother Esau. Hebrews
puts it this way: “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake
you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The
Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?’”
Like
“Jacob at the Jabbok,” do YOU need confidence, reassurance of God’s love,
forgiveness, and blessing? Do you need
to FEEL God’s presence in a very real way?
You
see, that is why God gave us the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion,
and Holy Absolution. For, in the
Sacraments, and Holy Absolution, God gives YOU physical, tangible signs of his
presence.
In
Holy Baptism, the water with the Word washes away your sins, implanting and strengthening
faith in your heart, making you “born again” as a believing child of God. As St. Paul says in Titus: “He saved us
through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”
In
Holy Communion, your Savior comes to you physically, inviting you to actually
eat and drink his body and blood, in, with, and under the bread and wine, to
strengthen you in the true faith unto life everlasting. As St. Paul says in 1st Corinthians: “The cup
of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The
bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”
And
just as Jacob that night saw the Lord face to face in the form of a man, in
Holy Absolution, God still also sends to you a man, to proclaim to you, face to
face, in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ: “I forgive all
your sins.”
Just
as the Lord appeared to Jacob that night in the physical form of a man, in the
Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, and in Holy Absolution, God
graciously gives you physical, tangible signs of his presence, to reassure you
of his love, forgiveness, and blessing.
At
the end of their wrestling match, the Lord also reassures Jacob with his WORD
of blessing: “Then the man said [to
Jacob], ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you
go unless you bless me.’”
Jesus
once told the Parable of the Persistent Widow, who despite a judge’s
indifference kept coming to him with her plea: “Jesus told his disciples a
parable to show them that they should always pray and not lose heart.” Like “Jacob at the Jabbok,” like the
persistent widow in the parable, like the Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel
Reading who kept following Jesus and crying out for mercy, do not let go of the
Lord.
Cling
to him for his blessing, wrestle with him in prayer. Jesus concludes the parable: “And will not
God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?
Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice,
and quickly.
And
that’s exactly what happens for Jacob the next morning as he crosses the Jabbok
River. God answers his prayers, and all
is well. His brother Esau does not hold
a grudge or seek revenge, but he welcomes Jacob and his family with joy.
When
you feel like “Jacob at the Jabbok,” afraid, anxious, alone, remember how God
comes to you like he did to Jacob, to reassure you of his love, forgiveness,
and blessing. Just as he appeared to
Jacob physically in the form of a man, the Lord still comes to you physically
in the Sacraments, in the tangible forms of water, bread, and wine. And just as
the Lord appeared to Jacob face to face in the form of a man, in
Holy
Absolution, God still sends to you a man, in the stead and by the command of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to proclaim to you face to face: “I forgive all your
sins.”
And
finally, just as the Lord left Jacob with his WORD of blessing, he still comes
and blesses you through his Word, as you read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest
it.
Amen.
