Seeing Greater Things 8/30/15
Genesis 28:10-21, John
1:43-51
Seeing Greater Things: This is a phrase Jesus uses with one of his
disciples, after they are impressed by something Jesus considers a smaller
detail. Jesus tells Nathanael, ‘you
believe because I saw you under a fig tree, you’ll see greater things than
that!”.
Today, we lift up two very
different people from the Bible. The
first is one of the famous patriarchs, who had a reputation for guile and
deceit. His name was Jacob, later to be
called Israel
After we look at these
stories, we’ll connect our 2015 stories to the same Lord, relying on the same
promise, and same invitation.
First, let us travel back
some thirty five hundred years to the life of Jacob. Despite the time difference, the same drama
and familiar dysfunction exists that might exist in our favorite reality show
today, or in our household, or a household with whom we are familiar.
Jacob is on his way to Haran
It is a story of running
away, and along the way, encountering a dream and the Lord’s promise, along
with transformation.
It is a story about the
unexpected places you might meet God.
Jacob doesn’t meet God in a
temple. He doesn’t meet God after much
soul searching and desire for prayer. He
meets God through a dream, while on the run.
Walter Brueggemann, in his
Intepretation Commentary on Genesis (John Knox Press, 1982), writes:
On the one hand we may be tempted to imagine that this is a
primitive religious report that has no pertinence to modern reality, for we
have ‘outgrown’ such matters. Or on the
other hand, we may wish to explain it psychologically and deny its objective
reality. But neither of these will
do. The narrative shatters our
presuppositions. It insists the world is
a place of such meetings” (with God). 242
Jacob is running from his
brother Esau, who had vowed to murder him after Jacob steals the family
blessing. He did this by dressing up as
Esau before his blind and dying father, even to the point, of putting game
scent on him so that Isaac might smell the fields. Jacob’s mother, upon hearing that her one son
was going to murder her other son, comes up with a scheme herself, to get Jacob
out of town. Everyone decides that life
might be easier if Jacob isn’t around.
And so Jacob is cast
off. He is sent out into this big world,
all alone. He must travel without
caravan to a land several hundred miles away.
And during that first night, he stops to rest. Alone.
Scared. Anxious. Uncertain.
He places his head upon a stone and falls asleep.
Jacob starts to dream. In his dream, he meets God.
Brueggemann comments;
“The meeting happens in a
dream. The wakeful world of Jacob was a
world of fear, terror, loneliness (and, we may imagine, unresolved guilt). Those were parameters of his existence. The dream permits the entry of an alternative
into his life. The dream is not a morbid
review of a shameful past. It is rather
the presentation of an alternative future with God…The vision shatters the
presumed world of Jacob. He had assumed
he traveled alone with his only purpose being survival. (243)
The dream is of angels
traveling up and down between heaven and earth.
The Lord stands on top of the staircase these messengers use. The LORD speaks in this dream, and his words
become a promise to Jacob. This promise
is of land, and heritage, and blessing and the LORD’s presence and care. The LORD even says that he will not leave
Jacob until ‘I have done what I have promised you.’
Jacob awakes. He responds to this dream with the
words: Surely the LORD was in this
place, and I was not aware of it.
Afraid, Jacob exclaims, “How awesome is this place: this is the house of God!”
Jacob places the stone as a
tribute and remembrance to his encounter with God. He names the place, Bethel
Unfortunately, Jacob’s
response to the Lord’s promise is conditional.
He will do these things, “IF”. If
God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking…If God
will give me food to eat and clothes to wear….if I return safely to my
father’s house…then
Breuggemann makes a
fascinating comparison between Jacob’s demands, and the Lord’s promises we find
in Psalm 23.
Jacob: If God will be with me:
Psalm 23: I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. (vs4)
Jacob: If God will watch over me on
this journey:
Psalm 23: He makes me life down in green pastures, he leads me beside
quiet waters, he guides me in paths of righteousness for his names sake. (vss
2-3)
Jacob: If God will give me bread to
eat
Psalm 23: He prepares a table before me in the presence of mine
enemies (vs 5)
Jacob: If I return safely to my
Father’s House:
Psalm 23: I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (vs 6)
The LORD fulfills his
promise. God descends into a scary,
lonely world and transforms it with his promise.
A millennium and a half later,
at just the right time, God sends his son Jesus Christ into this hurting,
scary, lonely world, a bright light upon a dark night. God’s promise of Jesus transforms. Jesus chooses twelve to start the message of
good news for all humankind.
Philip knows the blessing of
following. Jesus came up to him and said
‘follow me’. And Phillip did! He invited his friend to know the Messiah had
come! The one we’ve been waiting for is
here! When Nathanael, a devout man
himself, questions Philip, his new found confidence invites Nathanael: Come and see!
Nathanael is truly a man
without guile. Upon hearing the Messiah
comes from Nazareth
Before meeting Jesus,
Nathanael had been alone, resting from the heat of the day under the shade of a
fig tree. It apparently was his personal
hideout spot, not known to his friends.
To this fig tree Nathanael would go, to restore his spirit with quiet
and meditation upon the Scripture.
Perhaps that day he was reading the story of Jacob’s travels to Haran
When Nathanael asks Jesus,
how do you know me?, Jesus references Nathanael’s secret hideout. I saw you.
I saw you when you thought no one was watching. I knew your thoughts and your dreams, what
you run from, and what you run after! I
knew you. I saw you.
This information from the
Christ is enough for Nathanael to call himself a believer. You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!
Jesus response seems to
be: Really, that’s all it took? You believe because I said I saw you under
the fig tree? Nathanael, you’ll see
greater things than these. I am the
stairway, by which the messengers travel to heaven and back. Those angels you read of in Jacob’s
dream…they traveled by me.
And so we have a man of guile
on the run, who is transformed by a dream, and a good man running after God,
who is transformed by the story of the dream.
Both were invited to see great things, because they saw the Lord. The Lord is great, and greatly to be praised.
In our day, we are invited to
see all types of things, and to participate in all types of endeavors. But the things that are the greatest, and the
endeavors that are the most important are those which allow us to see: to see the greatness of God, to behold the
majesty of the Lord, to envision the beauty of the Lord.
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