While we were preoccupied with other events of life, the Lord of the universe came down the backstairs. That happened 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born. Like coming down the backstairs, Jesus’ birth was, at first, a little-known event in the little town of Bethlehem.
Joseph’s extended family didn’t even know of that event, for there was no room for Joseph and his pregnant wife in the guest room of his ancestral, family home. And so, Jesus had straw for His bedding and a feeding trough for His cradle. That’s not the fanfare you would expect for the birth of the long-awaited and prophesied Messiah.
In our Old Testament reading for today, we find a man named Jacob who was not in the mood for any fanfare. But he could’ve used a friend–and he was rapidly running out of them.
Jacob was the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham. Today, we find him on the run. His parents had quickly hustled him away because his twin brother, Esau, was out to kill him. Jacob’s name comes out in rough translation as “heel grabber.” And so he had been. Although number two in a set of twins, Jacob relentlessly kept trying to grab what Esau was supposed to get. He wanted to be number 1.
We understand what Jacob was trying to do. For don’t we often turn events to our own advantage? Have we not acted to increase the likelihood of getting what we want, even if just by a bit, even at the expense of another? Indeed, we know how to flex the muscles of our own independence, even if we drive other people away by doing so.
That was what Jacob was doing–he was flexing his muscles of independence. And he succeeded in pushing away almost everyone else in his life. But this time, the heel-grabber had gone too far. He had already grabbed what belonged to his brother, Esau. Jacob had even grabbed the blessing that his aging father, Isaac, intended to give to Esau.
And did Esau ever get mad! With blood in his eye, the enraged Esau wanted to kill Jacob. So, Jacob’s parents packed him off to go and live with his uncle.
So, there Jacob was, running away, trying to save his own skin. If he had honestly thought about what had happened, he would have to admit that he was to blame for the rupture in his family. For he had not only grabbed what belonged to his brother, but he had also deceived his father!
Jacob’s story isn’t one for perfectionists. He was a young man who had messed up his life in a big way. Once, he had enjoyed so much, but now he seemingly lost it all. He had to fear the snap of every twig as he traveled, for any of them could turn out to be Esau waiting to ambush him. He was also bearing a burden of guilt because of what he had done, his own responsibility for where he was.
Maybe you, too, have had similar circumstances that you had brought on yourself–not only guilt–but also the terrible aftermath because of some wrong you had done. Then you must come to grips with your deeds done wrong. Jacob was facing his own unpleasant choices in life. Jacob was reaping what he had sown.
For the first time in his life, he was out there in the world alone. For a while, Jacob wanted to be number one. But what many may not realize is the loneliness that being number one brings. The number one is separate from all the other numbers. After all, one is all by itself, in its own category. It is not a grouping of two, three, four, or more. It is alone among the numbers because it is by itself, not in a group.
If you are alone with your sin, you are also alone, for sin separates. We have seen that to be so, even in the earliest chapters of the Bible. It separated man from man in this life, even brother from brother. It separated the soul from the body in death. And, in the end, it separates the sinner from enjoying eternity as a child of God, that is, as a child of light. Instead, the one who approaches God on his own righteous experiences eternity as if he were burning with fire. He is simply reaping what he has sown.
Jacob had hit bottom. At the end of the first day, when he was running for his life, darkness fell, and he bedded down for the night. He had a dream in which he saw a ladder–better, a ramp–set on the earth and reaching into heaven, with angels moving up and down it. But, at the top of the ramp, was no mere angel, a heavenly messenger of God; instead, Jacob saw the Lord God Himself.
“I am the LORD,” He said, “the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.” The Lord was repeating His promise. Yes, He was repeating His promise to Jacob, that selfish, conniving heel-grabber. Who would have thought that Jacob–on the run and tired, resting his head on a stone for a pillow–would have such a grace-filled revelation from God Himself? Using dream imagery, the Lord was showing Jacob the backstairs of the universe and an open heaven.
When Jesus called His disciples, He told one of them: “You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51). Jesus was referring to the dream event in Jacob’s life. But what Jesus didn’t mention was a ladder or a ramp; instead, He mentioned Himself. The angels were going up to heaven and down to earth to the Son of Man.
And that’s what happened: Angels followed Jesus from His conception and birth, all through His life to His death and burial. They also were there at the empty tomb. They will be there when He comes again in glory. They are there because of Him.
Jesus is Jacob’s ladder. He spans heaven and earth. Jesus, who is both God and Man, makes peace between God and wayward mankind. As the Apostle Paul put it: “There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus. He gave himself as a ransom for all people, the testimony at the proper time” (1 Timothy 2:5-6).
The proper time had come when the angels revealed themselves to shepherds who were keeping watching over their flocks by night in the fields outside Bethlehem. An angel first announced: “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people: Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).
What glad tidings, indeed! The One who brings God and man together has been born. Then, a multitude of angel armies joined the first angel to sing forth praise. They got there down the backstairs of the universe. They were there through, and because of, the saving work that Jesus, then just a newborn baby, had already begun to do.
So, the angels sang that God’s glory blazes forth in the highest places, and there is on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Through Christ, God’s glory is our peace. Because of Him, heaven is open.
This means that you are not alone. Neither was Jacob. The Lord told him that he would be the great-great-great-etc. grandfather of the promised One, the Seed of the woman in whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. Then the Lord added: “I am with you.” Yes, the Lord was telling him, “I know that you are Jacob, the heel-grabber, and that you have a past full of shame. But nothing you have done will separate me from you.”
The Lord gives us this promise, as well. For when the promised One came, another prophecy that God had given to His Old-Covenant people was that He would be “Immanuel,” God with us. So then, what harm can sin and death do? For the true God has come to you!
Jacob woke up, overcome with awe. Not only did the power of God overcome him, but the Lord’s mighty love and faithfulness reached out and touched him when he deserved it least and needed it most. That night, running for his life, Jacob had gotten a glimpse of heaven. He got a slice, a preview, of heaven on earth. So did the shepherds outside Bethlehem, on the night when the angel announced that the Messiah was born. We also get a slice of heaven on earth, during every Divine Service. It comes through God’s own Word, Jesus, coming to us in Word and Sacrament, a foretaste of the feast to come.
But God did not leave Jacob alone. Jacob went on to live his life, get married, sin, and receive forgiveness. But Jacob also went on to confess, in his words and deeds, the promise of the Messiah to come. For He had faith in Jesus, the promised Messiah–even though Jacob didn’t even know what His name would be.
How much better we have it in God’s New Covenant than the Old. For Jesus has revealed Himself to us as God in human flesh some 2,000 years ago. But even more, until He comes again on the Last Day, He still comes to us every Sunday in Word and Sacrament. Like Jacob, this also you are to confess in your words and deeds.
That’s one reason our ladies join in something called the “Lutheran Women’s Missionary League.” They want to be confessing Jesus, not only in their private lives to their friends and neighbors, but to others whom they may not even know. They do so to do together what they cannot do alone. What a good respond of faith.
Yet, if we only see Jacob as an example to follow (and boy did he also give us plenty of bad examples) then we miss the point. For God has revealed to us, through what He had revealed to Jacob, that heaven’s door is open wide. This is true because Jesus came down the backstairs of the universe. For us and our salvation, Jesus even became the Backstairs of the Universe. Amen.
