Who You Really Are :: Genesis 32:22-32
Who are you? What are you looking for?
I know all of you know I know who you are. But today in light of our reading from Genesis 32, we really do need to ask ourselves these questions.
Who are you? What is your name? What are you looking for?
I’ll start by saying my name is William, and I am the pastor here at Trinity Lutheran Church. Of course, you all know that. My name has a Germanic origin, but has been popular since the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The name itself is a compound of two words ... will or desire and helmet ... Wilhelm.
My name is not the most common one in America. James, John, Robert, and Michael all top me. Can you believe that the five of us ... James, John, Robert, Michael, and William ... make up six percent of the U.S. population? I guess that means we rule.
You ladies are far more diverse and creative. The top five women’s names are Mary, Patricia, Jennifer, Linda, and Elizabeth, but together you make up less than 3 percent of the population. We need to add another dozen names to your list to equal the number of Jameses, Johns, Roberts, Michaels, and Williams in America.
I don’t speak lightly or disparagingly of our desire to know who we are. It is, in fact, something we all need to know. Once we know that, we can begin figuring out what we are looking for. Philosophers have long grappled with this question, mostly without success ... because far too often ... especially in our culture ... the question isn’t addressed to God. It is always addressed to ourselves. We like to ask ourselves, who am I?
In our Old Testament reading from Genesis 32, God both asks and gives us the answer to the questions:
WHO ARE YOU? AND WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
1. Jacob thought he knew who he was and what he was looking for.
One night on a river bank, after he had sent his family and belongings to the other side, leaving him alone, Jacob found himself wrestling toward these questions and answers. In the midst of the match, the man asked him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob (v. 27).
In Hebrew, the root of the name Jacob is heel, or to follow at the heel. To follow at the heel makes a lot of sense because Jacob and his brother Esau were born seconds apart. Esau was first, followed immediately by Jacob, who was literally grasping the heel of his brother (Gen 25:26).
But it also could mean to supplant. On more than one occasion he had struggled with and supplanted men. He follows on their heels and pulls them down. First, he tricked his brother Esau into giving up his birthright (Gen 25:33); then Jacob deceived his father, Isaac, into giving him Esau’s blessing (Gen 27:27-29); and he manipulated the flocks of his uncle, Laban, to his own advantage (Gen 30:25-43). He even supplanted his first wife Leah with his favorite Rachel.
When we meet Jacob in our text this morning he has finally decided that business tensions with his uncle Laban have become too great. So he heads back to Canaan, where he hasn’t seen his brother Esau in twenty years. The last time he was there, Esau wanted to kill him (Gen 27:41). So Jacob sends ahead messengers to Esau, hoping to smooth things first. But Jacob becomes greatly afraid when he learns that Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men (Gen 32:7).
That brings us to our text. Jacob sends his family and all his belongings across the river Jabbok. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until dawn arose. And he saw that he was unable to overcome him (v. 24-25a).
2. Who is he?
We need to ask this question now. It is too important to our conversation. If you are reading this text in English, you will never recognize how difficult this question is to answer. I will be blunt and say I think our English translations make it easy to miss the point. So I will ask again ...
Who is he? Who is wrestling whom in this text?
If you said Jacob and the preincarnate Christ are wrestling, you’ve done well so far. Indeed they are, as the prophet Hosea (12:4) later reveals!
But if you stop there, because of the way this passage is translated, it leads to all kinds of confusion and maybe false theology. When we stop there, then we invariably try to make this text about who we are and what we are supposed to look for. We then take on the role of Jacob and start talking about how we wrestle with God for our heart’s desire, saying to ourselves ...
If I just hang on. ... If I don’t give up ... If I persevere in all this trial and struggle ... all my prayers will be answered.
If I fight the good fight all the honor, glory, and riches will be mine.
Yes, we love to make this text about ourselves. We struggle to see Christ.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this text ... like so many others in scripture ... is not about us. I am not saying the Lord doesn’t want you to wrestle with him in prayer. Honestly, he does. In fact, he urges us to engage him in such bold, persistent prayer. He tells us that over and over and over. Pray unceasingly. Remind God of his promises to you. I bet we can find this truth in every book of the Bible, just like in our appointed psalm for today ... which we didn’t use.
From Psalm 121 ... I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
I read this precious truth now lest we lose sight of it as we concentrate on the amazing boldness and confidence with which Jacob wrestled with God. Through it all, you will recognize who you are and who he is.
He is the preincarnate Christ, also known as the angel of the Lord (Hos 12:4).
As the Lord wrestled with Jacob all night, Jacob recognized that he was unable to overcome the strength of the Lord, not that the Lord was unable to overcome him. Because with his palm, the Lord touched Jacob’s thigh, and dislocated it.
Finally, Jacob was forced to admit who he was.
And (the man) said to (Jacob), What is your name? (v. 27)
I think now after studying this text shame must have filled his voice as he said, Jacob. In speaking his name, he was testifying to the kind of person he had been.
3. So who are you?
As you sit here in worship this second Sunday in Lent, looking within yourself, wrestling with the sickness of sin in your life ... some of which has been disabling you all of your life ... you need to know how to answer this important question: Who are you?
Today, we are figuratively at the foot of the veiled cross. We struggle to understand what God has done for us. He has passed you through the river of baptism and over the place where you meet God face to face in confession and absolution. He has called you through the word made flesh. He has come to you.
And now ...
I ask you to join me in identifying yourself so that God hears who you are. You don’t need to say it so that anyone else hears it. Let it be an act of self-awareness and confession by you to God. Speak your name reminding yourself of what the good God has accomplished in you and through you and for you. But speak it also as an admission that you have missed God’s mark, that what he has called you to do has not been done, and that his warning of what not to do has been ignored. As your name reverberates, join me in admitting: O almighty God, I, a poor miserable sinner ...
4. I am Jacob.
I am Jacob ... a supplanter, a sinner, and most of all ... a saint ... one of God’s own.
We Jacobs spend too much time trying to overpower God, trying to run from our faults. But look what happens when God wrestles him to the ground. He finds us in the faith and divine service he gave us, as Jacob declares, I will not dismiss you unless you bless me (v. 26).
Jacob had the saintly courage to ask for what he knew he needed most: the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. He announced to God that he would not leave this place until God blessed him. And God did. And he does. God has given you faith in his promises, and he has called you through his one and only son, who was sent into the world to pursue you in mercy and save you.
Like the Canaanite woman, you believe these words and promises of God, don’t you? (Mt 15:21-28) We can’t see him, but we love him and believe in his promises (1 Pt 1:8).
As God responded, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and were able to (v. 28). In other words, you struggle with God because you have faith in the Lord, who is faithful and just and will save you. He makes you upright in God, which is what the name Israel means.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only upright one. He has done what we couldn’t. He has lived for you, died for you, overcome death for you, and ascended into heaven where he has prepared a place for you before he comes again for you. These precious promises give us peace, and hope, and endurance, and strength (Rom 5:1-5).
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jacob’s veiled encounter with the Lord made him aware of who he was and what he needed. Like you he is a sinner and a saint who needs the blessing of God. So come here as often as you can and receive that blessing through word and sacrament. In these means of grace ... baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and absolution ... God calls you by name and delivers to you, the gifts of the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
I think you know now who you really are. You are a Christian. And you know you have what you need.
Thanks be to God, he has given this to you.
Thanks be to God, he has united himself with you and grafted you into Israel, whose name means God is upright.
In him, he blesses and keeps you, holy and righteous ... in Jesus’ name.