The Story of Esau and Jacob

Homily for Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Esau and Jacob were twins. Rebekah described them as having a wrestling match in her womb. Esau emerged first. He was reddish in color, so they named him “Esau,” a name that means “reddish.” Jacob was clutching Esau’s ankle, so they gave a name that him means “Supplanter.” Little did they know how accurate that name would turn out to be.

Though they were twins, they were quite different growing up. Esau loved to hunt and comes off as quite profane, meaning that he doesn’t appear to care very much about spiritual things. He’s willing to essentially sell his future to Jacob for a bowl of beans (a story that is told earlier in the Book of Genesis). He cannot see past his immediate hunger for that which is of much greater value, namely, his birthright as the eldest son and his father’s blessing as the firstborn.

Jacob, on the other hand, values these things. He is much more spiritual than Esau. However, he is also a scoundrel! He doesn’t hesitate for a second to lie to and deceive his father. Rebekah cooked up the plan to deceive her husband, but she didn’t have to twist Jacob’s arm to carry it out.

None of this seems fair. Esau sells his future but regrets it. Rebekah conceives a plan for Jacob to supplant him. Isaac is deceived. Jacob gets away with it. Why then does the psalmist say, “For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself.” Why would he choose him – a scoundrel, a supplanter, a thief? The Scriptures emphasize in many places that God’s choices may not be ours. We don’t know the hearts of people. God knows everything about us. He also knows what we can become.

Jacob doesn’t have an easy life. He has to flee from home so that Esau doesn’t kill him. He ends up with a father-in-law that is a bigger scoundrel than he is. Although God blesses him, when he finally leaves his father-in-law to return home, he hears that Esau and a large group of men are coming toward him. His chickens are coming home to roost.

However, God doesn’t see it that way. Jacob is a changed man. He is no longer a supplanter. He gives him a new name, Israel, which means “God has persevered” or “God has contended.” In one sense, it is Jacob who has persevered. He has survived his foolish youth. Yet, he seems to have been given that name because, when it comes to Jacob, God persevered. He never gave up on him, never quit working in his life to change him, never made it easy for him. Jacob changed, so his name was changed to Israel, a name that means “God has persevered.”

The Gospel is all about change or conversion, about persevering in faith. Matthew uses the image of a wineskin to emphasize this point. Wineskins grew hard and unable to stretch as they grew older. Jesus is introducing something new. He is asking us to change, just as Jacob changed and was renamed “Israel.”