Jacob's Ladder
Scripture Reading: John 1:43-51
John’s Gospel concludes with a mysterious claim by Jesus. He tells Nathaniel, “You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Exactly what this meant in terms of its fulfillment isn’t answered in the text. There isn’t any event in the gospel accounts that fits. Luther thought we should interpret it spiritually. He said it isn’t meant to be taken in a literal sense at all. I think Boice is on to something when he said it is to be taken literally and it hasn’t yet been fulfilled because Jesus was talking about His second coming.
What is more clear is the Old Testament connection to what Jesus said. The Patriarch Jacob had a dream in which he saw the heavens opened and a ladder on which the angels ascended and descended. Some have speculated that Nathaniel was meditating on that story when he was under the fig tree and that is one of the reasons he was certain of Jesus’ divinity – Jesus not only saw him (omnipresent) but knew what he had been thinking about (omniscience). That is possible, but we can’t say that with absolute certainty.
What we can say is that the ladder Jacob saw was a foreshadowing or a type of Jesus. In the same way that Jacob’s ladder bridged the space between heaven and earth and made one accessible to the other, Jesus is the one who bridges the gulf between us and God. Heaven is open and accessible because of Jesus and what he has done through his life, death, and resurrection.