Wrestling with God

A Sermon for Proper 13 A – RCL (7-31-2011)

Offered by Nathan Wilson Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:              Genesis 32:22-31; Psalm 17:1-7,15; Matthew 14:13-21

Title:                Wrestling with God

My friends, have you ever wrestled with God?

In our reading from Genesis, we have the ancient story which explains how the name of the patriarch Jacob was changed. Did you notice how this story unfolds?

In the dark of night, in the wilderness, Jacob sits alone, preparing for his impending encounter with his brother, Esau, of whom Jacob is quite afraid. They are estranged, and Jacob is returning now to his homeland, and he expects to meet his brother in the morning, but he does not know how this meeting will unfold.

He is in the dark, in the wilderness, alone with his thoughts and his fears, until a man – a stranger - comes and wrestles with him.

Who is this mysterious man who suddenly appears and, without any warning or provocation or cause, lunges at Jacob and grasps him and engages him in a dual until the break of day? 

As you can imagine, there has been a plethora of speculation about the identity of this unknown opponent, who does not in fact seem intent on harming Jacob at all, but rather on engaging with him in some deep and important and mysterious way.

Some of the ancient rabbis said that this stranger must be an angel of God, sent to symbolize how the people of Israel were to struggle with God throughout their history. Other rabbis said that this man was the guardian angel of Esau, Jacob’s brother whom he was preparing to meet. In this instance, Esau was viewed as the rejected one, so this guardian angel was seen as a force of evil, and this match then symbolizes how the Israelites would wrestle against evil throughout their existence.

Some of the early Church fathers also thought of this wrestler as a holy angel. But a number of others suggested quite a different interpretation.

St. Hilary of Poitiers, the Bishop of that French city in the 4^th century, wrote a long prayer as a sort of meditative dialogue with Jacob as one of the holy saints of old. Listen to these quotes from that long meditation of St. Hilary:

“O holy and blessed patriarch, Jacob, be with me, be with me now by the spirit of your faith against the poisonous hissing of infidelity…What is this that you are asking from one who is weak? What do you expect from one who is feeble? This one for whose blessing you pray is the one whom you, as the more powerful, weaken by your embrace. The activity of your soul is not in harmony with the deeds of your body, for you think differently from the way you act. By your bodily motions during this struggle you keep this man helpless, but this man is for you the true God, not in name but in nature. You struggle with a man, but you behold God face to face” (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Genesis 12-50, p. 222).   

Do you see, my friends, perhaps where this thought is headed?

Those of us who know and honor and love and follow our Lord Jesus Christ as God-in-human-flesh cannot help but see him here in this ancient story.

Ask yourself and consider: who is it that comes into the world in the dark of night as a stranger, unknown and unbidden, coming from a place unknown?

Who is it that comes to wrestle with humanity and with the children of Abraham?

Who is it who appears quite weak in human flesh, and who is in fact defeated in the flesh, and yet is the one with the power to bless?

Who is it that can, with one touch of the hand, move muscle and bone and nerve within the human body?

Who is it that changes our names, and by so doing, gives a new birth and a new life and a new hope and a new identity?

Who is it that leaves Israel, after a long night of struggle, both blessed and lame at the same time? Blessed by faith through the request for a blessing, and lame because of the refusal to let go and to leave the struggle!

Who is it that causes us to say with amazement, after meeting him: “I have seen God face to face, and my life is saved?”

Do you know who it is? I hope you do. Who else could this be but the Incarnate One, the Messiah, the One who comes among us bearing the fullness of divinity in human flesh?!       

One of our hymns, Number 491 in our Hymnal, written to celebrate the Incarnation, highlights the mysterious and hidden nature of his coming into the world:

WHERE is this stupendous stranger, Prophets, shepherds, kings advise.
Lead me to my Master's manger, Show me where my Saviour lies.
O Most Mighty! O MOST HOLY! Far beyond the seraph's thought,
Art thou then so mean and lowly As unheeded prophets taught?
O the magnitude of meekness! Worth from worth immortal sprung;
O the strength of infant weakness, If eternal is so young!

There is another question, of course, lurking in this story. Why does this holy stranger come? The ancient text in Genesis gives no explanation. This too has caused much pondering over the centuries.

But we know where to find the answer, don’t we? In the Gospels, of course.

And what did we read there just a few minutes ago? “When Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them.”

It is compassion that compels the Lord to come and wrestle with us in all of our problems and difficulties and challenges.

And I think that it may be this same compassion that compelled the Messiah to come and wrestle with Jacob here in the dark of night, when he was alone and most vulnerable and afraid.

Up until this time, Jacob has been a schemer. The text in Genesis never paints Jacob in a negative light, but it puts him on display with all of his flaws in plain view. He manipulates his brother into giving away his birthright. He tricks his blind, old father – while nearly on his deathbed, no less! – into giving him the patriarchal blessing that was intended for Esau. While working for his uncle Laban, Jacob tricked him by making sure that his own herds had all of the strong animals, while Laban received the week and feeble ones.

This is how Jacob was … that is, until this night when he wrestled ‘til dawn and saw the face of God.  

As dawn was breaking, Jacob was given a new name and he was blessed, and he changed. He wrestled with a strange man in whose face he saw God and this meeting changed the direction of his life.

From this wrestling match on, Jacob is different. He walks away with a limp after this wrestling match. His walk is forever changed. In Hebrew, to walk is the word “halakah” and it is used to describe how one carries out the commands of God.

Jacob now walks through life a changed man – a new man with a new walk and a new name.

Don’t be afraid to wrestle with Christ in the midst of your fear and anxiety! In his compassion, he has come to be in the struggle with us, and to bless us, and to send us on our way changed forever by that encounter. Thanks be to God. Amen.