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7/20/08

Jacob’s Ladder: Authorized Personnel Only

No doubt if you’ve been driving around at all over the past several months you’ve seen garage sales everywhere.  Spring is the time for spring cleaning… and inevitably when you do some serious spring cleaning you’re going to find more than a few things that you don’t need any more, or don’t use any more, or just plain aren’t real sure why you bought them in the first place.  And with the slow economy we find ourselves in, putting those things up for sale at a garage sale makes a lot of sense.  You can make a few bucks, and someone who’s looking for what you’re selling can buy it from you for cheaper than they could from the store.  It’s a win, win situation.

But along with garage sales come those “free” signs.  Do you know the ones I’m talking about.  Maybe there’s a small dresser by the road with a sign on it that reads “free”.  Or an old lawn mower that says “free”.  You see that and you probably think the same thing I think… “OK, what’s wrong with it.”  Is the dresser made out of card board?  Has the lawnmower run sin Reagan was in office?  We’ve been trained to be cautious when we see the word “free”.  In the best case scenario, it usually means the item needs some TLC… a little work.  In the worse case scenario it may need more money put into it than you ever intended to spend and you’re stuck with a piece of junk that you don’t know what to do with.  And the better the offer, the less likely it is to be a great deal.  If you’re driving by and see a television with a free sign that was made long before anyone knew what a color TV was, well, it may still be in working condition.  But if you see one of those brand new, flat panel, big screen plasma televisions by the side of the road with a free sign on it, you can be pretty sure that something’s up.

We’re leery of free stuff.  Maybe it’s what we were taught.  Maybe we’ve been on the wrong end of a free deal.  But we all know that you often get what you pay for.  And if you don’t pay anything, you wonder what exactly it is that you’re getting.

Well, if you have your theological cap on this evening you may already have a guess as to where I’m going with this this evening.  We are going to be talking about the free gift of grace, but I don’t want to start where we often think of starting when we think of free grace.  I don’t know about you, but when I think about free grace I usually think about the New Testament, because that’s where the idea comes through most clearly, but I want to start earlier… much earlier.  I want to start in Genesis.

We’re going to be reading from Genesis chapter 28, starting at verse 10, but before we get to that let me take a couple minutes to remind all of us what has happened up to this point in scripture.  We’re likely all familiar with Abraham and his walk with the Lord.  Well, chapter 25 of Genesis tells us he had many children before he died, but he left everything he owned to Isaac, his promised son.  Isaac married Rebekah.  Rebekah was barren until Isaac prayed to God on her behalf and she gave birth to twin boys, Jacob and Esau, whom God foretold would be two separate nations, one subservient to the other.

Isaac and Rebekah were not exactly ideal parents.  They each had their favorite child.  Isaac’s favorite was Esau, and Rebekah’s favorite was Jacob.  But Isaac and Rebekah weren’t the only dysfunctional ones in this family.  Esau and Jacob weren’t exactly perfect brothers either.  When Esau came back from a hunting trip vitually starving, rather than just giving his brother some soup which he had prepared, Jacob demanded his brother’s birthright in exchange for the soup.  Not exactly what most people would consider to be a fair exchange.

But the underhanded scheming doesn’t stop there.  We’re likely all familiar of the familiar story of Isaac on his death bed.  When it came time to give his parting blessing Rebekah and Jacob come up with a plan that will ensure that Jacob, and not his brother Esau, will get the better blessing.  When Esau discovered what his mother and brother had done, he planned to kill his brother Jacob, but when Rebekah learned of this she warned Jacob to flee for his life.  And it is on this fleeing journey that we pick up Jacob’s story at Genesis 28:10

^“10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. ¹¹ When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. ¹² He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. ¹⁴ Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. ¹⁵ I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

¹⁶ When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” ¹⁷ He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸ Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. ¹⁹ He called that place Bethel,”

When I read this passage, I can’t help but think of a familiar Sunday School song.  You know the one?  “We are climbing Jacob’s Ladder.  We are climbing Jacob’s Ladder.  We are climbing Jacob’s Ladder.  Soldiers of the cross.”  Do you know the song?  Well, if that’s one of your favorites, I’m sorry, but I just hate that song.  Sure, it’s a cute little tune, but the theology is completely off.

I did a little research in preparation for this message, and Jews and Christians have taken this mysterious ladder or stairway to represent many different things throughout history, and if that interests you I invite you to do a little study of your own, but for this evening I want to narrow in a bit more than looking at every interpretation.

It seems to me the first problem I have with the familiar Sunday School song is the title: “Jacob’s Ladder”.  How did this come to be known as Jacob’s Ladder?  Jacob never even touches the ladder… and I would hate to think what might have happened had he tried.  This is God’s ladder with God’s angels or messengers ascending it and descending it.

In my research I found that “Jacob’s Ladder” was an old negro spiritual.  For the original enslaved singers of this song, the story of Jacob’s vision gave them hope that one day they too would receive the blessing of land and children that Jacob had received, which, in that context, I can see would be an encouragement.  But the fact remains that this is not Jacobs Ladder and it is not we who are ascending it.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear the song “Jacob’s Ladder,” what I envision is every day we are doing our best to get one day closer to being good enough for salvation.  We’re getting one rung closer to heaven.  But if the message of God’s ladder is supposed to teach us anything, I believe it’s supposed to teach us quite the opposite.

I purposely reviewed the history that came before our passage this evening to remind us exactly what kind of life Jacob had lived up to this point.  He was anything but an outstanding, upright, righteous person.  He had gotten to where he was in life by lying, stealing, and cheating.  Granted, his mother was not a great influence on him, but nonetheless he chose to do the things he did.  If we’re trying to think of someone that earned God’s favor and blessing through hard work and righteousness, the young Jacob is not exactly the first person who comes to mind.

So if “Jacob’s Ladder” isn’t really Jacob’s Ladder and it didn’t represent his persistent push toward righteousness, what did this mysterious stairway represent?  Well, if we look at the passage, we see that the ladder reaches from the earth to heaven with God at the top and his messengers or angels ascending and descending the ladder.  Essentially, this piece of land is a connecting point between heaven and earth.  The land on which Jacob is sleeping is holy ground.  This interpretation is confirmed when we read Jacob’s reaction in verse 17.  “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

So God has just handed Jacob a big piece of free holy land with the promise of descendants like the dust of the earth.  Surely there must be some catch, right?  Surely there must be an “if”.  Didn’t God say “If you do such and such, then this land will be yours”?  No!  But didn’t God know what type of person Jacob was?  How could he give such a wonderful gift to such a seemingly undeserving person?  Jacob didn’t have to climb the ladder!  As a matter of fact it was just placed in his lap, however undeserving he might have been.  Don’t you ever wish that we would get a break like that someday?

Well, that brings us several thousand years later in history to Romans 8:12-25. “¹² Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, ¹⁴ because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

^“18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

^“22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”

I want to look first at verse 15.  It says, “For you did not buy a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you bought the Spirit of sonship.”  That’s what it says, right?  No?  Well then it must say, “For you did not earn a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you earned the Spirit of sonship.” right?  No?  So what does it say?  It says, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.”  We received it.  But doesn’t God know what kind of person I am?  Doesn’t God know what kind of person you are?  Shouldn’t we climb up at least a few rungs of Jacob’s Ladder before we’re good enough to received the Spirit of sonship?

No!  That’s exactly the point.  God’s the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Jacob didn’t need to be deserving of the free gift he was given in the Old Testament, and you and I aren’t deserving of the gift you and I receive through the gift of Jesus Christ.  But this is a familiar message, right?  We all know that salvation is a free gift of grace, so why rehash it over again.  I believe it’s a message that bears repeating over and over again because it’s a message that’s so difficult for us to grasp.

If we can’t get the latest cutting edge technology for free, how could we ever receive God’s gift for free?  God’s gift is so much greater than any television.  God’s gift includes eternal life… we become sons and daughters of God… as coheirs with Christ we share in the share in the glory of Christ… our bodies will be redeemed…  God’s gift almost seems to good to be true.  Doesn’t it?  There has to be some catch.  There has to be some small print.  We’re going to get his gift home only to find it’s not as good as when we first picked it up, right?  We’re going to find out what is expected of us before the gift is really ours, right?  We’ve been trained to distrust anything free.  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Well, God’s offer is the ultimate of too good to be true.  He promises us something better than anything we could possibly imagine and we’re supposed to believe there’s nothing we need to do to receive it.  And the answer is: “YES”!  

We receive it just as we are.  We don’t need to start climbing Jacob’s ladder to show our sincerity before he’ll give it to us.  He doesn’t even want us on the ladder… that ladder’s reserved for his angels.  He has a free gift and all he asks us to do is receive it.  As a natural outpouring of that free gift we will want to live a new life.  As the passage says it,  “you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.”  The Spirit receive frees us from our slaveray to fear and sin and releases us to a life lived as God’s children, but that’s a result of the gift, not a prerequisite to the gift.

So what can we take home from this message?  What is God saying to us?  It’s not a new message I’m bringing to you this evening, rather and old, old story that we’ve probably heard time and time again, but a message that’s so counter to everything we know that it doesn’t hurt to hear it again and again.  God’s gift of salvation is freely given to all who believe.  It’s that simple.  Christ died so that we wouldn’t have to.  So leave the ladder climbing to God’s angels.  We only have to live lives of thanksgiving for the gift we’ve already received.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.