Point Together – Br. Luke Ditewig
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Br. Luke Ditewig
Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels
Today we remember angels. Mysteriously other, these outside, beyond, heavenly beings worship before God’s throne, fight evil, and come bearing messages. Ascending and descending, when seen, angels catch our attention. We ask in today’s collect that they “may help and defend us on earth.” We are not alone. Angels help us. They provide and protect. Glimpsing them reminds and reassures us.
When Jacob was afraid, he received a dream. Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder connecting heaven and earth and heard God speaking to him. God, who had seemed beyond and absent, broke through to be present in voice and with the sight of angels.
Jacob woke from his dream and said: “Surely the Lord is in this place – and I did not know it! … How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:16-17). Jacob made a pillar, poured oil on it, and called the place Bethel, the house of God. In our Gospel text, we hear Jesus referencing this story. Jesus said to Nathanael: “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (John 1:51).
“You will see heaven opened.” This is in the perfect tense. Not that they will see heaven opened merely in the distant future. Rather, Jesus is saying: You will see me. I am heaven opened. I connect you with God and the heavenly realms.1 Jesus connects us to God. Through John we see Jesus intimately close with the One whom he calls Father: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:11). Jesus is also intimately close with us: “I have called you friends” (John 15:15).
Jesus connects heaven and earth. Biblical scholar Dale Bruner writes that Jesus identifies himself by referencing Jacob’s story: “Surely the Lord is in This Place: Jesus. How awesome is This Place: Jesus. This Jesus is none other than the house of God. This Jesus is the gate of heaven.”2
Jesus is the point, and angels point to Jesus. Angels worship, speak, visit, help, provide, protect, and defend – not for themselves, but as servants of God. Dazzling as they may be, they point to Jesus, intimate and other, mysterious Word made flesh.
We are not alone. We may glimpse an angel or what an angel does – be surprised by provision or protection, a stranger who helps when we are most in need. When surprised by the mysterious, give thanks. Many beings are around us and with us. Together with the angels, let us worship the One who bridges all divides, who holds all in his hand and heart, who is heaven opened: Jesus among us.
- Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012), 115. ↩
- Bruner, The Gospel of John, 117. ↩