God’s Promise of Protection

In today's passage from the Book of Genesis, Jacob strikes a bargain with God. All of us have done. "If" God grants the favor we are asking, "then" we will do such and such. Jacob is running from Esau whom he has robbed of Esau's birthright. He is being hunted. In a dream, God promises to stay with him as protection against whatever ill may be pursuing him. So Jacob promises that if God will keep the bargain, he will be a faithful servant of God's.

God's promise is made during a dream in which Jacob sees a stairway to heaven. This "stairway" is a part of most religions in the world. The Jewish faith pictures its access to heaven as a stairway. Native Americans carve totem poles which reach to the heavens and the Great Spirit. Christians have the cross which stretches its arms to heaven and is, according to Jesus, our way to follow him.

The covenant that God makes with Jacob states that God will not abandon him. Jesus made the same covenant with us. As proof of that covenant, Jesus has left us the cross. Even death could not diminish the promise that God makes in Jesus. No "if's," "and's" or "but's" are part of this covenant. It is, as it always has been, God's solemn oath that we will never be left on our own. Yet we continue to bargain with God.

In the Gospel today, we meet a woman afflicted with a hemorrhage and parents who have lost a child. They place no conditions on their requests of Jesus. Jesus responds with the familiar "Your faith has saved you," to the woman, and the parents' faith is rewarded with the restoration of their daughter. These examples of faith were "bargain free." These people did not hedge their bet. Their faith was absolute. In the face of their example, our own faith is challenged. The next time we make a bargain with God, may we remember them.