Blessed Struggle
A Sermon by The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams on the Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost, October 16th, 2022.
"You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." Genesis 32: 22-32
The story of Jacob wrestling a heavenly being has long fascinated Biblical scholars and theologians. The mystery and ambiguity really excite the religious imagination. Who was this divine wrestler? What is the purpose of this story? To fully appreciate this particular episode in Jacob’s story, it helps to know what has preceded. From the very beginning of his life, Jacob has been restless and ambitious. He struggled with his twin brother from the time they were in the womb. When they were born, Esau came out first, but Jacob grabbed his heal, as if to pull him back, unwilling to accept that his brother was the favored firstborn. Later, Jacob steals Esau’s birthright by tricking his elderly father into blessing him instead of his brother. Esau vows to kill him and Jacob runs away to a foreign land to escape his brother’s wrath.
Today’s story comes many years later, when Jacob is returning home. A lot has happened in the ensuing years. He now has a large and prosperous household, two wives, two maids, and eleven children. But as much as he has accomplished, the demons of the past still haunt him. If he wants to return home, he has to face the music with his brother. Jacob is very anxious and fearful about seeing Esau again. So, he asks God to protect he and his family. And as he has demonstrated his entire life, Jacob is nothing if not shrewd and calculating. He not only prays for God’s deliverance, but he also sends servants ahead to soften his brother up with gifts. Still, he knows that this is a high-risk situation. And the night before meeting Esau again after all these years, he finds himself alone, after having sent everyone before him. And he struggles with a man until daybreak. This is no ordinary man. And this is a fierce wrestling match. A psychologist might say that this struggle is a manifestation of Jacob’s fear, that he is in a tortured dream state, battling it out with his brother, as he anticipates a difficult confrontation the next day. And there is a lot of truth in that interpretation. But if we left it there, it would rob the story of its ultimate power. When we understand the wrestler as an angel or as God, it takes things to a whole new understanding of our relationship with God.
Jacob is representative of all of us. In fact, he and his wives Rachel and Leah, and their maids, Bilhah and Zilpah, are our spiritual forerunners. Their 12 sons (the last one born after they had returned to Canaan) became the 12 tribes of Israel and the ancient Israelites laid the firm foundation upon which Christianity was built. So, understood this way, we see that wrestling is an important part of faith. It is part of our ongoing transformation as God’s people. When we have “striven with God and prevailed” as Genesis puts it, we are changed as Jacob was changed. After that nocturnal encounter, God declared that he was no longer, Jacob, which means “trickster” or “supplanter”, but Israel, “one who strives with God”. We are not passive recipients of faith. We are active participants. Faith is by its very nature, relational. We long to know and be known by God; we long for God’s blessing. We are called to be engaged, to ask questions, to really work at it, if we want to be transformed into the people that God longs to make us.
But our faith journey is also not all within our control. God is the one who allows and encourages us to strive, and God is the one who ultimately blesses. Jacob wrestled all night, he received God’s blessing, and yet this heavenly being would not tell Jacob his name, signifying that God is ultimately beyond our human comprehension. As Saint Paul later wrote, “for now we see though a glass darkly, but then we will see face to face.” The Israelites believed that no one could see God and live. And Jacob’s intense encounter with God left a mark. He walked with a limp after that, as a reminder of God’s call on his life. He had striven and he had also been humbled.
The next day, Jacob was finally reunited with his brother. He and his whole family bowed before Esau repeatedly as they saw Esau and his household approaching in the distance, and Esau ran to meet him, embraced him and wept as he was reconciled with his brother. God answered Jacob’s prayer and perhaps God had answered Esau’s prayer too. God longs for our human relationships to be healed. And God longs for our relationship with God to go to the next level. And sometimes struggle is the necessary precursor to both.
"You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." Genesis 32: 22-32