19th Sunday after Trinity

October 11, 2026 AD
Preacher: Rev. Philip Meyer

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SOLI DEO GLORIA!

Our Old Testament and Gospel readings end with similar human reactions. Jacob awoke from his dream and exclaimed: “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

The clause is printed on the front of our Sunday bulletin each week. It’s also on the bookmarks on the top of the piano. In the Holy Gospel Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic and then healed him, and: “When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”

Jacob was on the lam. His brother Esau had vowed to kill him because Jacob had stolen his birthright as the first-born. He came to a certain place, the text records. Jacob did intend to spend the night in this place but it became dark and he could go no further. He did not realize that this would be more than a place to lay his weary head. He laid on the ground and used a rock for a pillow, something we find quite amazing, given our desire for exactly the right pillow. A top of the line pillow today costs as much as $100! A rock? I suppose that extreme weariness could cause us to fall asleep in circumstances which would normally prevent us. But this certain place became a meeting place between God and Jacob.

He fell asleep and had a dream, but it was more than a dream; it was a revelation from God himself, telling him that God promised to bless him and his descendants as well as promise him the land upon which he slept. What is even more important is this promise: “…in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

One reading concerns a dream and the other a miracle. In both cases the Lord himself is present. In Jacob’s dream the mystery of the Incarnation of Christ unfolds, the Promised Savior, who was to descend from him. Here God renewed the covenant which he made with Abraham and Isaac, and repeats it now to Jacob.

When Jesus called Philip and Nathanael, Nathanael confessed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” And Jesus replied: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” [John 1.51]

So Jesus interprets Jacob’s dream for us! Luther remarks:

This is how Christ explains this ladder. I regard this as the chief and proper explanation of this passage. And this is that great and indescribable dignity of mankind which no one can express, namely, that by this wonderful union God has joined the human nature to Himself. [AE, vol. 5: Lectures on Genesis: s, pp. 220—221]

It is the blessing of the Incarnation!

So what shall we make of these things? We have heaven and earth with Jesus above the earth and on the earth. At the Baptism of Jesus and also at his Transfiguration we see heaven opened. Matthew records the reaction of Peter, James, and John to this vision: “…they fell on their faces and were terrified.”

Jacob was afraid; the disciples were afraid; the crowds were afraid. Why?

When God appeared at Sinai with smoke, fire, thunder, and trembling of the ground, the people were terrified beyond description. When God appears human beings are afraid, even of his holy angels! Why are we afraid of being in the presence of God? Very simply, it is because of our sin. Adam’s response in Eden sums it up: “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

Adam had a keen sense of his sin. And so do we.

The call of the Gospel is to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins is the beating heart of the Christian faith. Forgiveness is more important than physical healing. We pray for physical healing for our bodies and minds but we know that we cannot avoid the death of our bodies. Sin has so infected them that they must perish. There is no “if,” but only “when.” To live forever in God’s presence requires the forgiveness of our sins.

In Mark’s account of this episode additional words of the scribes are included: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” [Mark 2.7] And the reaction of the crowds is interesting: “When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”

A more accurate translation of the words “to men” is “to the realm of men,” or “among men.” We see here the promise of the establishment of the Office of the Holy Ministry. Among the gifts that Christ gives his Church is this office which actually bestows the forgiveness of sins through the voice of a man. Luke records, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” [Luke 24-46ff.]

But how is this done? Through the Office of the Holy Ministry as the vehicle by which forgiveness will be pronounced and distributed until the last day. The forgiveness of sins, being the beating heart of the Christian faith, must be distributed. There must be preaching of repentance as well as the forgiveness of sins. Law and Gospel is how we Lutherans speak of it.

So here in this place heaven comes down to earth every Sunday when the Word of Absolution is proclaimed over repentant sinners and the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins” is distributed. Here is the fulfillment of Jacob’s ladder. Christ himself is present among us! You know, I actually pity those who have Christ locked up in heaven and not here in Word and Sacrament, his Real Presence! They stare up into heaven without realizing that he is here now!

The ladder in Jacob’s dream was not for him to climb up to God but for God to come down to him. Recall the words of the Nicene Creed:

who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man:

So where was Bethel geographically? As to the exact place of Bethel scholars have disagreed for millennia, but Luther liked to believe that Bethel was Mount Calvary itself. He said that even it couldn’t be proven he believed these thoughts to be godly thoughts. [AE 5, p. 243]

He goes on to say:

Yet he is alone here, and besides him there is no one else, in order that we may learn that God’s church is where God’s Word resounds, whether it is in the middle of Turkey, in the papacy, or in hell. For it is God’s Word which establishes the church. He is the Lord over all places. Wherever that Word is heard, where Baptism, the Sacrament of the Altar, and absolution are administered, there you must determine and conclude with certainty: “This is surely God’s house; here heaven has been opened.” But just as the Word is not bound to any place, so the church is not bound to any place. One should not say: “The chief pontiff is at Rome. Therefore the church is there.” But where God speaks, where Jacob’s ladder is, where the angels ascend and descend, there the church is, there the kingdom of heaven is opened. LAE vol. 5, p. 244).

And so our church buildings should properly be called sanctuaries, holy places, because holy transactions take place in them. God himself is present among us to distribute his forgiveness. This sanctuary, then, is our Bethel, the House of God, the place where God the Holy Spirit brings to us all the blessings Christ has earned in his innocent life, suffering, death, and resurrection.

The church is defined here, what it is and where it is. For where Christ dwells, there is the church, and nowhere else; for the church is God’s house and the gate of heaven, where the entrance to eternal life and the departure from the earthly to the heavenly life are open. It is not these walls per se, but what happens within them when our Lord forgives sins through his called and ordained pastors, and distributes his true body and blood to sinners who cry for refreshment. And what happens in this sanctuary is exactly what Christ did for the paralytic lying on his bed. He forgives our sins, thus opening heaven to us. It comes through Christ alone. He descends, he serves, he forgives, he strengthens us. So when sermons are preached, when the Sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution, and men chosen by God speak in his place and by his command, then we may joyfully exclaim:

“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.