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| Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel) by Paul Gauguin |
When I was a kid, my mother decided I needed to learn how to defend myself. So, she signed me up for wrestling camp. Now, I would have rather spent my Saturday mornings at basketball camp, but I ended up spending six Saturdays supposedly learning to wrestle. I think I tried my best, but I never became a very proficient wrestler. The camp ended with a tournament and much to my relief I got pinned in the first round. That was the end of my wrestling career.
I don’t know if Jacob went to wrestling camp, but according to our reading from Genesis, he was a very competitive wrestler. He even might have been Olympic caliber!
At this point in Jacob’s story, he’s reached the Jabbok River. His brother Esau lived on the other side of the river. Jacob and Esau were twin brothers and rivals. This relationship carried a lot of baggage that goes back to the womb.
Years before Jacob fled his homeland for that of his Uncle Laban. I’ll get to the reason for that in a moment. At this point in the story, Jacob gets up in the night and sends his family and goods across the river. With the family on the other side of the river, he returns to the safer side of the river. That’s when a stranger attacks him from behind. While the stranger might have surprised him, Jacob was no slouch as a wrestler and he fought back with a vengeance.
Now, this wasn’t Jacob’s first wrestling match. He started his wrestling career in the womb, as he tried to best his brother Esau from the very beginning. That means Rebekah must have had a fun pregnancy. Then when it came time to enter the world, Esau got a head start, but Jacob did his best to get around his brother. So Jacob grabbed Esau’s heel and tried to pull him back. Esau might have gotten out ahead of Jacob but they would continue to compete with each other for the rest of their lives.
The event that set up this moment in Jacob’s life took place on the day Jacob convinced Esau to trade his birthright for a nice bowl of stew. Then, to finish things off, Jacob tricked his father into giving him the blessing that was supposed to go to Esau.
None of this sat well with Esau who decided to kill his brother. Sibling rivalries can get out of hand, at least in the biblical story. Since his brother wanted to kill him, Jacob fled to his uncle’s house. During his sojourn with his Uncle Laban, he gained four wives, eleven sons, and half of Laban’s flock. You see, Jacob was a trickster who wasn’t afraid to do what was necessary to get the advantage.
While Jacob seemed to be an unsavory character, God chose to work with him to bring blessings to his people and to the nations. However, if he was going to return home and claim his inheritance he had to face his brother who might not be ready to welcome him home. In fact, before he crossed the river he received word that his brother was bringing four hundred armed men to greet him.
Since Esau didn’t appear ready to reconcile, Jacob tried to appease him by sending presents. Then he divided his family into two parties. He sent them over separately to see what Esau would do to them.
So, with Jacob’s entire party situated on the far side of the river, Jacob sits down by the fire and contemplates his future. He couldn’t sleep because he worried about what Esau would do to him when they came face to face.
As he sat alone by the fire, he began to pray. Jacob asked God to deliver him so he could fulfill the covenant promise God made with him years before at Bethel. On that occasion, Jacob had a dream. In that dream he saw a ladder running between heaven and earth with angels running back and forth. It’s at that point that God reaffirmed with Jacob the covenant promise first made with Abraham that through his descendants the nations would be blessed (Gen. 28:10-17).
While he prayed, the stranger attacked him from behind, leading to a wrestling match that lasted until daybreak. Then, as the day began to break, with neither he nor his assailant getting the upper hand, his attacker pleaded with him: "let me go because the dawn is breaking.”
Jacob could have let go and claimed victory, but he wouldn’t let go. So, his assailant knocked his hip out of joint, hoping that this would give him the advantage. But, Jacob still didn’t let go. Instead, he demanded that his attacker first give him a blessing.
The stranger agreed to these terms and offered a blessing that changed everything for Jacob and his descendants. The blessing included a name change. From now on instead of Jacob, whose name means “one who supplants,” he would be known as Israel, which means "one who struggled with God and men and won."
Yes, Jacob won his wrestling match with God. While he might carry in his body a reminder of his wrestling match in the form of a limp, his destiny and his identity were now assured. Armed with confidence gained through this struggle Israel was ready to face his brother. The good news is that they ended up reconciling.
Now there’s more to the story than a wrestling match with a divine entity. Like Jacob, we may also find ourselves engaged in wrestling matches with God. It’s through these wrestling matches that we discover our true identity as God’s children.
Now some Christians believe that God is like a professional wrestler. While a professional wrestling match is supposed to look real, it runs according to a script. Therefore, the outcome is predetermined. So some Christians believe that like these professional matches, God writes the script and provides a predetermined outcome.
Other Christians believe that our decisions and choices influence and affect the way God works in the world. I number myself among those who embrace this view. While God’s character might not change, the future is still open.
We all face difficult decisions in life that offer no easy answers. We often struggle to discern the direction God would want us to go. So, like Jacob, we pray and meditate. We might spend time reading Scripture and checking in with trusted advisors. We might even “ask the pastor” for advice.
Most of the time we make our life decisions without knowing how the future will turn out. We’re like Jacob who would take a risk when he crossed the river. His brother could kill him or they could be reconciled so Jacob could fulfill his calling to serve as the source of blessing to the nations. It was this wrestling match that gave him confidence that God would be with him as he stepped into the future. He invites us to do the same.
Not everyone is comfortable with this idea. There are those who would rather not enter into wrestling matches with God. That’s because they’re not sure that God welcomes their questions and doubts. They’ve heard it said that we should simply live by faith and not ask questions. Jacob shows us a different way, and he is one of our most important spiritual ancestors. God didn’t reject him because he asked questions. The same was true for David, Job, Moses, Peter, and Mary. While Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham, is said to be the chief exemplar of the life of faith (Heb. 11), he also had questions for God. Even Jesus had questions for God. In the Gospel of Luke, on the night of his betrayal, he went to the Mount of Olives to pray. He asked the Father to take the cup from him. He prayed so earnestly that his sweat became great drops of blood. He didn’t turn away from this path, but he did have questions and concerns (Lk 22:29-46).
So, as you sit by the fire alone in the dark, with the river before you, what are your questions and concerns? Whatever they are, you’re not alone. The answers might be slow in coming. You may have to take a big risk and cross the river without knowing how things will work out. We live in a time of great uncertainty. This is true for our own lives and it’s true for this congregation and most other congregations. We may need to engage in a few wrestling matches with God before we’re ready to cross the river. We may have to rethink the way we view God. Hopefully, as we participate in these wrestling matches, our faith grows stronger. We come to know that even in our darkest moments, God is there with us.
One of the messages I take from Genesis 32 is that God is not a passive spectator of our lives. In fact, God is an engaged participant who is willing to get into the ring with us. But when we participate in these matches, like Jacob, we may gain a new identity and a new confidence so we can cross the rivers of our lives. Yes, like Jacob we gain a new name that matches our new identity in Christ.
We stand at the river’s edge. We don’t know what the future holds. We can become paralyzed by doubts and concerns or we can join Jacob, that is, Israel, and follow God’s lead and cross the river. We take a risk in crossing the river, but that’s where our future with God lies. That’s where we’ll find the promised blessing. There may still be other rivers to cross, but we have to cross the one lying in front of us before we can cross the others. The good news is that God goes with us as we cross the river. So, with Jacob, as we get ready to cross the river, we can say we’ve seen God face-to-face and received God’s gift of salvation, even if we go with a limp!
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
First Presbyterian Church
Troy, Michigan
Pentecost 19C
October 16, 2022
| Image attribution: Gauguin, Paul, 1848-1903. Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel), from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58468 [retrieved October 15, 2022]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Gauguin_137.jpg. |
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