“Surely the Lord Is in This Place”
Our church has a special place in our hearts. In this sacred place, we retreat from the busyness of the world. Here, we sit like Mary at Jesus’ feet, hearing God’s Word. Here, we enjoy the fellowship of other believers. But then we leave this place to go back into the world, back into our daily lives with its worries and challenges. Sometimes church gives us a glimpse of heaven but then we have to come down to earth again, down to the stuff of our daily lives. Does Jesus make advents to you during your workday week, in your everyday activities?
In this life and this world, it is easy to leave Jesus behind in church and to live unaware of His comings and presence in our daily lives. This happens because our Western and American culture is very good at compartmentalizing things. We separate our life into two very distinct compartments, into two worlds — the transcendent and spiritual world of God, our religion, and the empirical world of sense, science, the secular world. On Sundays and during church activities we worship God with devout dedication. Outside the church, in our daily lives, we edge God out to the margins of our lives. We are so independent, self-sufficient, relying on self, and looking out for self. We are either unaware of or do not practice the presence of God in our daily living. We live as if God does not exist. The advent of Jesus our Lord is not integral to the daily lives of many. The pressures, temptations, deceptions of our surrounding culture, and the challenges of daily living can make us become “functional atheists” (Anderson) or as Os Guinness puts it “atheists unawares.” He explains it this way:
“In short, the modern world quite literally ‘manages’ without God. We can do so much so well by ourselves that there is no need for God, even in his church. Thus we modern people can be profoundly secular in the midst of explicitly religious activities. Which explains why so many modern Christian believers are atheists unawares. Professing to believe in supernatural realities, they are virtual atheists; whatever they say they believe, they show in practice that they function without practical recourse to the supernatural. … The call to follow Jesus Christ runs directly counter to this deadly modern pressure toward secularization.”
Thus, back to the question, does Jesus make advents to you during your workday week?
1. Jacob’s Ladder
Today we reflect on the famous story of “Jacob’s Ladder.” Jacob deceived his father Isaac and stole his older brother, Esau’s birthright. You can imagine how angry Esau was, and how disappointed Isaac was. So his parents decided that Jacob needed to leave home. They sent him to live and work for uncle Laban, Rebekah’s brother. This is as tough as leaving home to join the military or going off to college in another country. For Jacob, Harran was on the other side of the world. So put yourself in his shoes. Your first major time away from home. Your brother is angry with you for good reason. He may come and try to kill you. You’re worrying. What’s going to happen? You’re walking miles. You’re all alone. Night comes. You find a place that looks safe. But how safe? You’re outside, animals around. You use a rock for a pillow. Does it get any more real-world than this? Jacob may not have been expecting an advent in his problems, but he got one. Let’s pick up the story in Genesis 28.
He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
2. Jesus Is The Ladder
Have you perhaps wondered, which way is Jacob’s Ladder going, up to heaven, so we can go to God, or does the ladder come from heaven down to earth, so God comes to us? The Bible answers the question. Over a thousand years later in the same land of Israel, something happened that helps us understand Jacob’s Ladder. Jesus has begun his public ministry. A man named Philip told Nathanael, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth ...” Of course, Nathaniel was suspicious and doubting, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Shortly thereafter, Nathaniel meets Jesus face to face. Jesus says, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.” That caught Nathaniel off guard. “Nathaniel said to him, ‘How do you know me?”
Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Before we came face to face, I saw you. Let’s pause a bit here and think about this. Jesus saw us, knows us before we met and know Him. He created us, our inmost beings. He knitted us together in our mother’s womb. He made us fearfully and wonderfully. Our frames were not hidden from him when we were made in the secret place, when we were woven together in the depths of the earth. His eyes saw our unformed bodies. (Ps 139) Wow! Not only did He create us, but before today, He saw us, all of our lives, every day, everything. And now, Jesus sees us every day, every moment. No wonder Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the king of Israel!”
And now listen to this, listen with Jacob’s Ladder in mind. Jesus says, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (Jn 1:51). Jacob’s Ladder? It’s Jesus. Jacob saw a ladder with angels ascending and descending. He saw the LORD, Yahweh, at the top and lonely, frightened Jacob at the bottom. That was a dream to Jacob, but to us it reveals Jesus Christ. “You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
In John 1:43-51, Jesus is identified as Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph, Son of God, King of Israel, Son of Man. The title “Son of Man” comes from the Old Testament and designates the Messiah. Jesus applies the title to himself, here and in other places in the Gospels. Jesus is the Messiah, the promised One, the Lord and Savior, who has come to us.
Now we can answer the question. Does the ladder go from earth to heaven or from heaven to earth? It is both. The Son of God comes from on high to people like Jacob, people like you and me in our everyday lives, in our daily, weekly activities. He becomes our full brother, takes our sins to the cross, and then as our forerunner rises and ascends, goes back up the ladder to the Father. Why? So that we can ascend to God. “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pt 3:18).
3. "Surely the LORD Is in This Place"
“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven” (Gn 28:16, 17). Jacob’s Ladder is an ongoing story. The Spirit of the Lord Jesus continues to descend with God’s promises, his presence, and his power. He descends to you and me in our real-world lives, every day of the week, 24/7. How often are we scared by the journey ahead of us? How often do we think we’re alone? How often are we anxious and worried? How often are we fearful? Listen again to the Lord’s words to Jacob.
Jacob heard, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go” (Gn 28:15). Today Jesus says to you, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). Jacob heard, “In you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (28:14). Jesus is that promised offspring of Jacob who gathers us and says, “Behold, I and the children God has given me” (Heb 2:13). Jacob heard, “I am with you and will bring you back to this land” (28:15). Today Jesus promises you “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Pt 1:4). As the Spirit of Jesus descends to be with you and me, the Spirit lifts our thoughts, our focus, heavenward so that we anticipate our own ascension to be with Jesus in glory forever.
What did Jacob have when he awoke from his dream? In one sense, his life was still the same. He was on the run, alone. He was still going to face many challenges in his life. But he had one thing that made all the difference. He had the promises and the presence of God. “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” So do you. “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him,” in Jesus Christ (2 Cor 1:20). Jesus is the ladder between you and heaven.
God fulfilled his promises. Jesus came. He was born. He sent the Holy Spirit. Jesus is with us always but He is not just present. He is guiding us, protecting us, strengthening us, providing for us. God is with us and He will do as He promised. He will return. We will have eternal life. There will be a new creation. God’s advents, His comings to us, abound and continue.
Therefore, with Jacob, we can say, “Surely, the Lord is in this place.” Wherever we are, in this place or that place, here or there, He is with us—everywhere, all the time. And unlike Jacob, we know it. But do we? Do we believe it? Do we live as if He is always with us in every place? We should be so aware of God’s presence that we will say of every place and time we find ourselves in, “How awesome is this place!” And then there in that place, we worship Him with our lives, our thoughts, words, and deeds. Because, “Surely, the Lord is in this place.”
4. Come and See
Perhaps, you are suspicious and doubting like Nathaniel. “Really? Is God really present with us all the time, everywhere? It sounds like wishful thinking. I don’t see Him.” To you, I give the answer of Philip, “Come and see.” No, you and I don’t see God. He does not appear to us in visual forms like burning bushes, pillars of flame, or angels, but in all his appearances in the Old Testament, there was one thing that was always the same. He speaks. His word is the constant in all his advents. We have that word in a fuller way than Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. “We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pt 1:19).
Be it Sunday in public worship or in your daily devotions, Jesus, the living Word, descends to be with you. Here in this place of worship, the Holy Spirit descends to us. His word comes to us, as we hear the Scriptures about Jesus in readings, sermons, and teachings. Here his word comes to us in the waters of baptism, as we remember our birth to new life and the hope of heaven. Here at the Lord’s Supper, we gather to remember and receive his great gift of forgiveness in anticipation of eternal life where all sin and sorrow will be forever past. Martin Luther writes, “Throughout the world the house of God and the gate of heaven is wherever there is the pure teaching of the word together with the sacraments.”
And then Jesus makes advents to us during the week as well. Through meditation upon the Bible, our Book of Advents, the Spirit of Jesus comes to us every time, just as he came to Jacob. Again, Luther: “If anyone speaks with himself and meditates on the word, God is present there … and he works and speaks in such a way that the entrance into the kingdom of heaven is open.” Yes, Advents abound!
So, come and see. Take a step of faith and believe. Jesus will come to you and you will see Him, experience his presence. Come and see. During this Advent refocus. Make an effort to practice the presence of the Lord. Make it a habit of life so that you will continue experiencing his presence, his coming to you, all the time and in every place. Take Advent out of the church and into your weekdays, into your workplace, into your family, into your classroom, into your daily activities. Come and you will see that surely, the Lord is in this place wherever you are.