SUNDAY SERMON
LADDERS OF MERCY
Epiphany II, Year B
January 19, 2003
Gospel: John
1:43-51
Philip was running. He was excited. He was also an athlete, always in training. He could hardly wait to find Nathanael, his friend. Nathanael was a bookworm; he wanted to grow up to be a rabbi but they were still friends. Ever since their school days they had been looking for the Messiah and he had finally turned up. Right here in Galilee. Philip found Nathanael-sitting as usual under his favorite fig tree. Daydreaming, Philip thought, although Nathanael did have his Torah open. He could have been meditating or praying....
"Guess what, Nathanael, it's Jesus of Nazareth, the one we've been looking for." "Nazareth? You've got to be kidding," said Nathanael. Philip knew better than to argue with the best debater in his Hebrew class so he just said three words, "Come and see." And he took off down the road.
Curiosity got Nathanael up. He started after him, awkwardly half running, tripping on his robe, huffing and puffing. Still a teenager, Nathanael was one of those people who is "born old."
Jesus saw him coming and when he was within earshot said, "There's a real Israelite, no deceit, no guile, not a false bone in his body." Shocked, Nathanael said, "You don't even know me." Jesus looked at him and said, "One day before Philip got to you, I saw you under that fig tree and I knew then you were wrestling with God." That settled it for Nathanael He shouted out, "You are the Son of God, rabbi."
But that was just the beginning. Much more was in store.
"Because I said I saw you under the fig tree: is that why you believe? You haven't seen anything yet. Before this is over you're going to see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Nathanael just stood there in the blazing sunlight, speechless. It was an epiphany but the revelation, the full insight didn't come until several years later.
Imagine with me (I know this is not in the Biblical text), that the passage
in the Torah, [the Jewish Scriptures] which Nathanael was reading that day under
the fig tree was from Genesis 28. Flashback with me to the story of Jacob. Jacob
whose name means deceiver; Jacob: who was a mastermind at getting his own way--cheating
his twin brother out of his birthright, tricking his father-in-law. In short,
living up to his name again and again, Deceit.
But then one night, Jacob began to get a new name, a new identity. Let me tell
you how it reverberated down the centuries from Genesis to Nathanael and to
a man from Nazareth named Jesus. All the way down to us gathered here this morning.
What happened one night was that Jacob was making a getaway from his brother
Esau. Esau was out to kill him.
Jacob camped out in the hill country with only a stone for a pillow...And he
dreamed the most unforgettable dream. He dreamed about a ladder. The top of
the ladder reached up to heaven. Angels were going up and down the ladder and
somewhere at the top was God. And God spoke to Jacob in this dream.
The words weren't what you'd expect. God didn't chew him out for all the double-dealing he'd done. No, instead, God told him the land where he was camping and a lot more besides would belong to him and his descendants. And that they would bring blessing to other nations. And in case that wasn't enough, God ended by saying, "I love you and I will be with you wherever you go" [Gen. 28.15].
Instead of giving Jacob Holy Hell God gave him Holy Heaven. As icing on the cake, Jacob learned that God doesn't love people for who they are but because of who God is. Jacob didn't have to climb the ladder to wheel and deal for the goodies. God and the angels were using the ladder to hand the gifts to him for free. It's on the house. It's by grace. God has raised up a ladder of mercy.
Now come back to Nathanael, standing there speechless in the sunlight. He decided to follow Jesus. That's about all we know for sure. Yet the real epiphany, the revelation about what Jesus meant when he said "you will see heaven opened and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man" happened much later-at the very end of this gospel of John.
One night after Jesus had been killed as a criminal on a cross, Peter and a few of the others went out fishing. Nathanael went, too. They caught absolutely nothing. At daybreak a figure on the beach called out some advice to them. "Cast the net over there." Begrudgingly they did. And when the catch nearly broke their net, it began to dawn on them that the figure on the beach was Jesus. As they got on shore and approached him, they heard him say, "Come and have breakfast." They all sat down beside him there in the sand and shared a holy breakfast-a holy communion [John 21.1-14].
Heaven was opened that morning for Nathanael and Peter and the others on the beach. Whether or not they saw angels, the ladder of mercy was there. It was an epiphany. Jesus, the ladder connecting heaven and earth, was revealed to the disciples.
Heaven is meant to be opened for everyone of us this morning. Are we there on the shore like the disciples waiting for Jesus to feed us? [Good, we shall be fed.] Do we know Jesus as our ladder of mercy to God? A ladder which is never going to be yanked out from under us because God is holding the top of it.
Are we like Nathanael, without guile, or are some of us more like Jacob, full of guile? In either case, the ladder of mercy connecting heaven and earth is there for us; it's free; it's on the house. In Jesus the heavens which were sealed up are now flung open and the communion between heaven and earth is restored.
Alleluia to Jesus, who died on the tree and has raised up a ladder of mercy for me...[Hymn 453, refrain].