Where's Jesus? Jacob wrestles with God (Genesis 32:22-32)

I have often wondered what to make of Jacob's wrestling match with God.  Specifically, what the story has to do with me.  God's words, "You have struggled with God and with men and have overcome" in Genesis 32:28 stick with me.  Can I struggle with God and win? That is what many would like to believe.  But, as I have been re-reading Genesis and studying it with my small group, I have been asking a new question and this new question is helping me to understand old passages in new ways.



If this is your first time reading my weekly post entitled, Where's Jesus, then I will repeat my premise and  question.

Premise:  Jesus claims all Scripture points to him in John 5:39 "You search the scriptures because you think that by them you may find eternal life, but these scriptures testify to me."  The scriptures Jesus is referring to are the books of the Old Testament.  This leads to a natural question.

Question: Where is Jesus in this passage of Scripture?

Looking at this text through this lens, I am seeing Jesus anew in Jacob's wrestling with God.  If we recall, Jacob has been struggling through his relationship. He stole the blessing of his father, tricked his brother into selling the birthright, struggled with Laban, etc.  But finally, for the first time in his life, Jacob asks God for a blessing, instead of taking it himself.  Jacob struggles for God's gifts.  Where is Jesus in this?

Jesus is mixed into the story antithetically.  Synthetically is how we normally read the story: Jesus is involved in the match as we wrestle with God every day.  We strive to understand God, to hold onto God, to gain his blessing.  We recognize that we need God's blessing, but we demand it and think that by hanging on we will force God into giving us his gift.  I can identify with this way of seeing the story, but unfortunately it presents a picture of Jesus not congruent with the Bible.  Romans declares, "There is no one who seeks God" (3:11).  The synthetic way of reading places Jesus more in the place of one we can control by our strength and grasp.  But this isn't the gospel so lets turn to the antithetical.

Antithetically, Jesus isn't involved in a wrestling match with us where we can force his blessing.  Quite the contrary, He willingly gives us his blessing and changes our name, calling us brothers (Mark 3:34) and friends (John 15:15).  He blesses us and spares our life, even though we wrestle with God trying to force his blessing.  Antithetically, Jesus comes and grasps onto us, instead of us grasping onto him, like Jacob.  He chooses us in Christ before the creation of the universe (Ephesians 1:4).  He holds us and blesses us even when we are kicking and screaming to be released.  For he has promised us in John 6:39, "this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day."   

And as he does this we slowly come to ask from more of his gifts and blessings for our nature is truly changed.  So where is Jesus, Jesus is in the story as the one who grasps onto us and insists on blessing us.  When we think it is all about us holding on to get the blessing, it is really about God holding onto us and desiring to bless us.  That is where Jesus is in the wrestling match with God.