St. Bartholomew

August 24, 2025

John 1:43-51

Jacob, the patriarch, is running. He was running from his twin brother Esau. Esau was planning to kill Jacob. So Jacob runs. He stops for the night and makes camp. He sleeps, and in the night he has a dream – he sees a ladder, or better, a stairway to heaven. In the dream, angels are going up and down the stairway. At the top, YHWH speaks. He tells Jacob that through his children the whole world will be blessed.

Now Jacob is running for his life. He has no wife, no children, and a very uncertain future. But here he sees heaven open, he sees the unseen realm, and he receives a promise not only for his own life, but for the life of the world.

He calls the place Bethel - “House of God.” He anticipates returning some day. He sets up a stone, consecrates it with oil, and promises to give a tithe—ten percent—of everything God gives him. Those who know God’s blessing give back to Him tithes—ten percent—and offerings even beyond that.

Jacob pledges a tithe, but he’s still running. He finds a relative on his mother’s side. He starts working for this man, Laban, and agrees to work for him for seven years and then he can marry Laban’s daughter Rachel. But Laban tricks Jacob, and Jacob ends up married to Rachel’s older sister Leah instead. After this, he marries Rachel too, but has to work for seven more years.

There’s a lot of drama, and a lot of children. There’s plenty of sin, but still, God blesses Jacob, just as He promised. Jacob’s brothers-in-law don’t like how much Jacob is prospering, and Jacob has to leave.

He goes back toward home, and learns his brother Esau—his twin brother who wanted to kill him—Esau is coming with an army of 400 men. Jacob has a lot, but he doesn’t have that. He’s terrified. Esau will be there in the morning. “Tomorrow,” Jacob thinks, “my brother kills me.”

Have you ever been awake late in the night, anxious? Maybe you want to sleep but you can’t. That’s Jacob. A “man,” the text says, comes and wrestles with him. Who is this mysterious man? He wrestles with Jacob all through the night. At some point Jacob realizes this is no man. And he cannot win. But he doesn’t give up. The divine figure demands Jacob give up. But Jacob replies, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

And at this point, the heavenly man changes Jacob’s name. “Your name will no longer be Jacob. From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Here’s where you need to know just a touch of Hebrew. Jacob means “supplanter,” or “heel-grabber,” and Israel means “Man who sees God.” (The etymology is debated, but for our purposes today, just remember Israel as “Man who sees God.”)

To sum up so far: Jacob is running for his life, he sees angels on the heavenly stairway, and hears God’s promise that He will bless the world through Jacob. A few decades later, Jacob is again on the run, He prays and wrestles with God, and God changes his name to Israel, “Man who sees God.”

Now, centuries later, Jesus encounters a man He compares to Jacob. Today is his feast day, the feast of Bartholomew. Perhaps you’re wondering why we have Nathanael in today’s Gospel, and not Bartholomew. Well, there’s not unanimous agreement about this, but they’re probably the same person. Bartholomew only appears in the synoptic gospels, and he’s always paired with Philip. But there’s no Bartholomew in John, only Nathanael, who is brought to Jesus by—guess who?—Philip. So it seems they’re the same person.

In today’s Gospel, Bartholomew’s friend Philip is first called by Jesus. “Follow Me,” He says to Philip. That’s the call of a disciple. That same call goes out to us. Jesus says to us the same words: “Follow Me.” We’re called to listen to Jesus’ words, repent, and follow Jesus in the way of the cross.

So Jesus tells Philip, “Follow Me.” And Philip tells Bartholomew (or as John calls him, Nathanael). That’s what friends do: they tell others about the Savior. “We’ve found the Christ, the One Moses wrote about, and also all the prophets!”

Now here’s the part where those Old Testament events with Jacob come into play. As Nathanael (Bartholomew) approaches, Jesus says, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!” Remember when Jacob, the “supplanter” who deceived his father and brother, remember when he had his name changed by the heavenly man after the night of wrestling? He changed his named to Israel. Now Jesus says that Nathanael has no deceit in him; by coming to Jesus, he’s leaving the old man, Jacob, behind. Jesus calls him to discipleship. Jesus calls him to see God. That’s who Jesus is – the incarnate God, God in the flesh. So Bartholomew (Nathanael) becomes Israel – Man Who Sees God.

As the Lord rescued Jacob from death as 400 soldiers closed in on him, Jesus has come to be Nathanael’s rescuer – and yours.

So Nathanael confesses Jesus as Son of God and King of Israel. But Jesus tells him he will see something greater: He will see heaven opened. He will see Jacob’s ladder, the stairway.

What is it? It’s Jesus Himself. “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” Jesus is the stairway. He is the access point to the Kingdom of God. He is the way, He is the door, He is the Life.

There’s a classic rock song where a woman is buying the stairway to heaven. The Tower of Babel was intended to reach up into heaven. The stairway or ladder represents human history: man’s attempt to achieve bliss, heaven, nirvana, through experience, conquest, lust, inebriation. Get that job, get that car, get that phone, get that girl, get the ocean view – with a moment of purchase we can climb the stairway to heaven.

Even though most of you have identified as disciples of Jesus, you’ve got the same impulse. You think that if you work hard, make the right decisions, buy the right stuff, you’ll be happy, you’ll be better, you’ll get satisfaction.

Religion sells the same thing by means of ethics or experience. The right spiritual effort, or good works, can get you up the ladder. It’s embedded in the 18th century hymn, “We are climbing Jacob’s ladder.”

But the whole point of the narrative with Jacob, and culminating in Nathanael’s encounter with Jesus, is that the ladder cannot be climbed by us. The ladder first of all descends, bringing God down to us.

That’s the meaning of the sacrament Riley Mae received this morning: heaven opens for her, the Lord comes down and makes His claim on her. Her parents will do what all parents do: spend the coming decades worrying about her. But so much is out of our control. In Baptism we hand the child over to Jesus and say, “You help! Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on her!”

The Virginia governor’s race is heating up. States are redistricting, or threatening it. Ukraine and Russia are still at war. China’s building quite a navy. Is it important? Sort of.

But the only thing that actually matters is that Riley is a child of God, Bartholomew became a disciple, Philip heard the call from Jesus, “Follow Me!” and he did.

That’s the call that goes out to you. The call to repent. The call to have your named changed, your name changed from deceiver to disciple, from Jacob to Israel, from child of Adam to child of God.

All the other stuff pales by comparison.

Bartholomew knows this. He goes to India and Armenia to preach the Gospel. He’s flayed—skinned alive—and then beheaded. But he knew his murderers couldn’t take anything that His Savior wouldn’t give back.

Bartholomew is a disciple of the Risen One. He confessed the same redeemer of which Job said, “After my skin is destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.” Jesus restores the skin. Jesus raises the dead. Nothing else matters.

Stop climbing all your ladders. Knock them down, and look for the one you cannot climb.

Behold, the Stairway to Heaven is open to you. Jesus descends to you. His cross is the wood of the ladder you could not climb. Repent, and follow Him. And on the last day He will raise you and all the dead, and give to you and all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true. +INJ+