Genesis 28:1-5; 29: 15-30; Mark 11:27-33
March 6, 2022
- Jacob meets his match in his uncle
I have to be honest with you. I struggle a little bit with the Jacob stories in Genesis. As an oldest child, I was raised to do what was expected of me, to strive for the approval of authority figures, and to do what was right or appropriate. I had extra responsibility as the oldest of my siblings and had to step up to be worthy of that trust. No, I was not always, but I did pretty much try to do the right thing in as much as it was possible. I greatly struggled to be the person that I believed God was calling me to be over the years. You heard some of that a couple of weeks ago in the inscription I left myself in that Bible I received as a gift on my 20th birthday. I was raised to play by the rules, to color in the lines, and to be a good little boy.
So this is my struggle here. Jacob is NONE of this and certainly NOT an eldest child. In fact, NO ONE in this passage is coloring in the lines. In a way, I’m still back with Esau wondering what happened and how things could have worked out the way they did. There are no easy answers here. It got so tense home that they had to send Jacob out of there as quickly as possible after last week’s story. Esau was out for blood. He felt mightily wronged, and whether it was God’s plan or not, he was enraged at the trick.
That is what drove Jacob far, far away back to his mother’s people, to his uncle Laban. There he was supposed to find a wife. And he did. In fact, he ends up with more wives that he knows what to do with, but that’s another story. Today, we just end up with two. As anyone who is married can imagine, that would NOT lead to marital bliss.
This story is so messy and so interesting. It must be real because it would be hard to make this up. It is also proof that marriage takes a lot of work – 14 years worth, in fact. Maybe I should put that test to the test in these days and require those who would wed my daughters to give me seven years of work first. I have a feeling I would end up with three single ladies, though. I’m not sure we have that same appetite for discipline or devotion.
How many times in your life have your expectations, your plans, your hopes been frustrated? I have to imagine far more times than you can count. Life is one big curveball that always crosses home plate. Along the way, we are confronted and confounded by surprises, disappointments, and setbacks. Jacob, the great trickster, has played a monster trick on him. Just imagine: he had worked seven years for his young Rachel to be his wife. For seven years, he hung around and watched her and got to know her and spent time with her. Even though the text says that it seemed but a few days, I don’t think that was the truth of his heart. He longed to be her husband more than anything he had ever known. I cannot imagine it was easy. I think the text wants us to believe that it was not torture but pleasure to prepare for that life. His excitement sounds overwhelming.
Then, when the wedding came, he ended up with the wrong sister. What a crazy, terrible, deceitful ruse. If Laban had just said up front that Jacob had to marry both, I feel certain that Jacob would have. The problem is that Leah was unwanted. For some reason, in the seven years that Jacob worked for Laban, no one came for her. No one rode up and swept her off her feet and showered Laban with dowery. No one wanted Leah. This is an ongoing curse for her in her marriage to Jacob. She was clearly second fiddle, maybe third or fourth, even. The only way that Laban could get her married was through trickery, true trickery in the very style of Jacob, himself. And the story only escalates from there. Laban and his people try to swindle Jacob, and Jacob and his family are scared of the threat of Laban and eventually flee after he is done working for Laban.
For now, I want to dwell in this idea of how God’s blessing works through these difficult ways. In a more obvious and simpler situation, Jesus in Mark’s gospel is challenged by all of the leading men in Jerusalem – chief priests, scribes, and elders (everyone who should know something), and they try to catch Jesus in a trick, a trap of words and faith. They were trying to set Jesus up to say something blasphemous, but Jesus did the true Jewish rabbi thing and answered a question with a question. He turned their challenge back on them, and they could not answer him, so he did not answer them. God pierced their hard hearts with the witness of John the Baptizer and the will of the people. Jesus through the gospels never really proclaimed his authority publicly but demonstrates his authority in what he does and teaches, in how he really meets people and shows them a greater truth than they thought possible.
In a real way, this should be the same thing for the church. We will never be reckoned a legitimate church because of our name or our denominational affiliation or even because we CALL ourselves Christian. Those are ALL words, just words. If Jesus had told those people the authority that empowered him, it still would have been just words. We need actions, not words. A random group of people who want more than anything to be a true community in Christ Jesus, serving and worshiping in his Spirit, is the group that any of us would want to be regardless the name or title or affiliation. People should know who we are by our actions first and not by our names.
Maybe Jacob is in a similar situation. His hopes and future were all tied to his actions. He showed Laban what kind of man he was by what he did. He worked fourteen years just to have Rachel as his wife and kept Leah as a wife to honor Laban and to respect that marriage, even if it was through a deception. It does make you wonder how he really did not notice, though….
But don’t get too distracted in the weeds. The world is full of words and weeds. What it needs is true action in Christ. It needs people who ACT like followers of Christ much more than people who SAY they are Christian. In fact, I have lamented before that we use that name too easily. The name Christian has become a cultural term and less what it actually means, “someone who is in Jesus or of Jesus,” “a follower of Christ.”
This really hits home as to how we know whether someone is sincere or not. Putin was saying all kinds of things before he invaded Ukraine, but he never said he was going to do it. It was his actions that exposed his true intent, and it continues to be his actions that show how evil a heart he truly has. On the other hand, President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, the comedic actor before becoming the political leader of Ukraine, has proven his actions through and through. Rather than flee like some presidents we have seen around the world when the enemy was at the door, he has stayed and bolstered his people in their desperate fight against what seems like impossible odds. I hope and pray his actions continue to live up to his position.
We know the ultimate expression of making your actions talk louder than your words is the cross itself. That is the authority that Jesus exercises. His authority is the authority of love. When Jesus has this conversation in Mark’s gospel, he is preparing to go to the cross. Jacob was working in love, also, and he suffered through the tricks and trouble for his love, but ultimately, he proved himself through the love.
It does not matter what we call ourselves if our actions do not speak for us. Words are no better than tricks. When Laban said one thing, he did another. We all know talk is cheap. There is no better example than social media. If you wonder why this world is hurting so badly right now, so much of it is the violence of words. There is a reason why love works so much better as a verb than a noun. If we want to be serious about our life in our Lord, it must be fueled by more than names, titles, associations, and words.
We will see who is serious in the coming years about leading into the troubles of this world with the heart of Jesus. We will see who out there is just a sham and who is genuinely living under the cross of our Lord. We will see who responds to our neighbor’s deep need for love with the gift of God’s love. We will see who here wants to be more than members of a church but the living Body of Christ in this place. Through it all, we will answer any turn with love, even our own failings in the grace of God. Rather than trying to live up to a church sign or a name on a bulletin, we can work out our salvation each day. We are more than a history, more than a sign, more than an affiliation, more than name; we are here to be love and to show why we claim Christ is for us all. To God be the glory. Amen.