Title: LIVING UNDER THE CROSS OF CHRIST

Focus: the cross of Christ unites the people of God. Jacob foresaw and foreshadowed the one, holy, universal, people or church of God. We live under the cross of Christ.

Function: To teach the congregation to discern the unity of the church as foreseen by Jacob and foreshadowed in his blessings to Joseph and his sons.

Texts: Genesis 48:1-22; Ephesians 2:11-22

Sometime in the 1960s, the late Queen Juliana of the Netherlands visited Calvin College. Now the Queen of Holland descended from a large royal family, called “The House of Orange.” When the queen toured Calvin College, she overheard one of the many bystanders--an elderly caretaker who was a bit deaf himself—say to his neighbor standing nearby: “Wow! Look at her legs!” The queen turned and without missing a beat and with great class she said: “Those legs carry the House of Orange.”

This afternoon, I want to shed light on the house of God by going back to the Patriarch Jacob and the Apostle Paul. In order to do so, we need to set the stage by asking two questions. The first one is this: What are some biblical references to the church? From Paul (Eph. 2:19-22) we learn that the church is called “God’s people,” “God’s household,” “God’s building,” “God’s temple.” Elsewhere in Scripture (I Peter 2), we learn that the church is called “a holy priesthood,” “a chosen people,” “a royal priesthood,” “a holy nation,” and “a spiritual house.” These references to the church suggest that God’s people are diverse, gathered by God’s Spirit throughout the ages into one body--the body of Christ, the church.

The second question is this: What holds this diverse people of God together? What unites them and us here tonight? The answer is: The crucified Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, unites and builds the church or house of God. The cross of Christ unites the people of God. And from Genesis 48 we learn that Jacob foresaw and foreshadowed the one, holy, universal church or body of Christ.

Christians, drawn and gathered by the Spirit of Christ from all over the world, live under the cross of Christ.

When you think of the Christian church as a house--as a family of nations called the people of God—then you will see that the “legs” that carry the House of God go back to the cross of Jesus; and you’ll discover that Jacob on his deathbed foresaw and foreshadowed this mystery of God called “the church, the house of God.” Elect from every nation, yet one o’er all the earth; her charter of salvation: one Lord, one faith, one birth. (Psalter 502)

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In Ephesians 2, the Apostle Paul reminds the Gentile Christians in Ephesus (and us today) that Jesus Christ has unified the people or house of God. It used to be that only the Jews—the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob qualified to be the people of God. After all, God gave them his covenant promise; God gave them the sign of circumcision. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were promised and given the inheritance of the Promised Land.

They received the Law of God; they received the Word of God through the prophets. Throughout history, God entered into a relationship with them—a relationship that set them apart from all the rest of the world. There were the Jews—the chosen people of God—and there were the Gentiles. And there was a great wall of divide and hostility between them.

However, now that God has sent his Son, the Lord Jesus, to die for our sins, to conquer the powers of sin and death, the promise of God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is now also at work in the nations of the world. That is, God—in Christ—has united Jews and Gentiles into one body, one family, and one house called “the church.” That’s why Paul says: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two (Jews and Gentiles) one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility….”

Why did Jesus do that? Listen: “His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two (Jews and Gentiles) thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” It is through the cross and by shedding his blood that the Lord Jesus has brought salvation to the world and gathers into one body, one house, and the people of God from all over the world.

Now Jacob foresaw and foreshadowed the cross and its power to unite the people of God. In Genesis 48 we find Jacob on his bed. He is frail and ill; he has poor eyesight, and he is dying. Joseph--the firstborn son of Rachel, Jacob’s beloved wife—has entered the bedroom of Jacob. Joseph’s two sons—Manasseh, the first-born son, and Ephraim—are with him. Manasseh and Ephraim were born outside the house of Jacob, in Egypt; their mother is an Egyptian.

Will Joseph—as prince of Egypt-- inherit the promise of God? Will Joseph’s children be part of God’s covenant promise, or will they end up living as Gentiles, as people who serve and worship foreign gods instead of the God of Israel? God’s covenant promise drives Jacob to wrestle with these questions.

And thus we hear Jacob tell the family story to Joseph: “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.’” Now, Jacob is concerned that Joseph’s children—born in Egypt, raised in an environment of idolatry, will miss out on God’s promised blessing. So, what does Jacob do?

Listen: “Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Rueben and Simeon are mine. Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers.”

In other words, Jacob adopts Joseph’s sons as his very own. And Jacob gives Joseph’s sons the place that belongs to Rueben and Simeon, Jacob’s first and second son from his wife, Leah.

Jacob not only adopts Joseph’s children as his own; in doing so, he also honors his beloved wife, Rachel. For by adopting Joseph’s sons and giving them the place of Rueben and Simeon, Jacob honors Rachel. It would not be Leah, but Rachel who would be honored as the mother of Jacob’s firstborn son. Ephraim and Manasseh, like Joseph and Benjamin, are now the children of Rachel.

How do we come to that conclusion? Well, notice that dying Jacob has not only Joseph’s sons on his mind; he is also thinking of his beloved wife, Rachel. Listen: “As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).” Jacob is thinking of Rachel and his offspring. And Joseph knows the story, because Joseph was about 17 years old when his mother died, and Joseph was there, together with his father Jacob, when they buried his mother, Rachel.

Now this is drama; this is love at its apex. In Jacob’s action of adoption, we see a shadow of the God Almighty at work in the Lord Jesus Christ. For it is in Christ Jesus, that God adopts us, too, as his children into that one household, that one body called “the church.” Jews and Gentiles would be the recipients of God’s saving promise.

God in Christ unites his people. How? Through the shed blood of Jesus, that is through the cross. By his actions on his deathbed, Jacob foresaw and foreshadowed this awesome mystery and love of God. And it takes place right before our eyes.

Consider, for example, Jacob’s sign of the cross.

Jacob wants to bless the sons of Joseph. There is Manasseh, the firstborn son of Joseph, and Ephraim, the second-born son. Here Jacob stands in the place of God. For it is through Jacob’s action that God’s blessing on these boys would be realized over time—throughout the centuries. This is a sacred moment. And Joseph knows it, for the text says “…Joseph removed (Manasseh and Ephraim) from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground.” And then Joseph leads his son to his father’s bed. On Jacob’s right-hand side, Joseph places Manasseh, his first-born son. That’s the place of honor for the firstborn son. That’s the place where Manasseh is supposed to receive a double portion of Jacob’s blessing. The right hand side is the place of superiority and greatness. Ephraim ends up on Jacob’s left-hand side.

Now listen to the text: “But Israel” (that’s Jacob’s covenantal name, which he received from the angel of the Lord when Jacob wrestled with the angel, with God himself for a whole night) “reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.”

What does Joseph see? What do you see? What is Jacob doing? He blesses God’s people, he adopts these Gentile sons of Joseph, with the sign of the cross: “May (these boys) be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly upon the earth.”

Joseph wanted to correct his father. But Jacob, with the eyes of faith, foresaw and foreshadowed the future, when God would raise up a deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And through the work of Jesus on the cross, God would reconcile Jews and Gentiles to himself, making them into one house—the body of Christ.

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Here we see God’s mysterious, electing love at work. We saw it earlier, when Jacob deceived his own father, Isaac, by stealing his brother Esau’s birthright blessing. We saw it when Jacob bypassed his firstborn son, Reuben, from his wife Leah and gave that birthright blessing to Joseph’s son, Ephraim. The older serves the younger.

We will see it more. The “first shall be the last,” said Jesus centuries later, “and the last shall be the first.” And when the Apostle Paul spoke about the unbelief of Israelites and the faith of Gentile Christians, Paul writes in his letter to the church in Rome: “…I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs is the divine glory, the covenant, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all….”

Then, as Paul reflects further upon the mystery of faith and unbelief, Paul says: “…it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. For this was how the promise was stated: ‘At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.’ Not only that, but Rebekah’s children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written (by the prophet Malachi): ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’”

God calls all people (Jews and Gentiles) throughout the ages. God calls us through Jesus Christ who fulfills the promise of eternal life, a new heaven and restored creation by dying on a cross and rising from the dead. The cross of Christ unites the people of God.

Listen once more to Paul’s words in Ephesians 2: 18ff.: “For through (Jesus) we both (Jews and Gentiles) have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

Think of it: Queen Juliana said that her legs carried the House of Orange. Jesus, by means of the cross, carries the church, the household of God. That’s why Paul says: “In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

Jacob foresaw and foreshadowed that cross work of Jesus. So then, you and I live by grace, under the sign of the cross.

Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.