Third Sunday in Lent The Teams of Twelve

Genesis 28:10-19a and John 1:35-51

Jacobs ladder

 

The teams of twelve…. John starts the building of the team of the twelve disciples for Jesus, as we hear in the passage from John’s gospel.
Jacob has the powerful dream, about the ladder to heaven with angels passing up and down, as we hear in the passage from Genesis. From there his name is synonymous with Israel and the twelve tribes of Israel from the descendants of his twelve sons.

There are other links between these two passages;
There are links between the books of Genesis and John; they deal with the beginnings, the establishing of God’s church and creation, light and darkness, day and night.

There is a similarity of the endings of both passages; in Genesis Jacob makes a vow,

‘ If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.’

In John, Jesus says,

‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the soul of man’

And there we also have another connection, in the angels ascending and descending.

Rev’d Sue Martin, Assistant Priest St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield London