Astonishing Promises

Tucked away at the end of the first chapter of John's gospel I think is a truly astonishing promise. We often don't see it, because John 1 of course starts on spiritual steroids and chapter 2 water-to-wine quickly grabs our attention. Yet in the often skipped verses 50 - 51 is an incredible statement for Jesus to make.

Nathanael, already wowed by Jesus' knowledge of him before they had met, is told that he will see 'heaven open, with angels ascending and descending ...'.

This is understood as a reference Jacob's special dream in Genesis 28, known as 'Jacob's Ladder'. In his deep sleep Jacob saw heaven open, and a two-way staircase for angels to cross between heaven and earth. Jacob is given affirmation promises repeating those to his grandfather, and the expectation that the land he was lying on would be especially blessed.

No one before or after had experienced anything quite like this dream. It was special to Jacob.

Yet now Jesus is telling the just-recruited Nathanael and others (the Greek is plural) that they would see something of this very vision once again, though this time centred on Jesus. That is an astonishing promise for anyone to try and make. It is astonishing for even Jesus to make.

Yet that was the deal! Something to do with Jesus, where he was present, being be a place of open heaven, angels freely bridging between heaven and earth! Do we confine the Genesis passage to being a quirky incident that enthused Jacob? If so, why does Jesus adopt it and link it to himself?

Could it be that the original dream pointed forward to a greater spiritual reality that both centred on and was made possible by Jesus. Do we need to locate ourselves with Nathanael and chums and hear Jesus say 'You will see ...', no matter how astonishing that might sound to us?