The Meeting
Over the years there have some very famous ‘meetings.’ Grant and Lee at Appomattox. Godzilla and King Kong in Tokyo. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in the “thrilla at Manila.” Napoleon and Wellington at Waterloo. Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe at Wimbledon.
Our Scripture today is about another famous meeting—not the fantasy of the celluloid screen, not from the horror of the battlefield, nor from the clay courts or the boxing ring. Our dramatic meeting is from the drama of real, everyday life—a meeting of far greater import and impact upon our world.
Read Genesis 33:1-4.
The heroes of this story are Jacob and Esau, sons of Isaac and grandsons of Abraham. This is a story of reconciliation and forgiveness.
In his BC days (i.e. Before Christ) Jacob was anything but a model citizen. He was a scoundrel; a conniver, a cheater; and those were his good traits! This very human story is fraught with high intensity emotion and drama. Jacob and Esau, brothers, were at odds. There was a history of intense rivalry, jealously and friction. There was hatred, a hatred so bad that Jacob took off to live with Uncle Laban in another country because Esau was going to kill him.
And understandably so because Esau was the victim of Jacob’s cunning deceit. Esau first exchanged his birthright for a meal and then lost the first-born’s blessing by his father through Jacob’s lies and deceit and cunning. In fact the name Jacob means “supplanter, grasper.” Esau and Jacob were twin brothers. Family feuds between family members are no television game show! They can be nasty and bitter. Such was the situation here.
Jacob was no angel and understandably he got what he deserved. Genesis 27:41 reads, “Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, ‘The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
Needless to say, the situation was tense and quite severe. Interesting to note that the hero of this story is not Jacob but Esau. (How many boys today are named Esau?) Humanly speaking Esau had every right to hate Jacob who had broken trust and robbed him of his future.
Many years have passed prior to our Scripture story. Jacob who had had many experiences with the living God was a changed and transformed man. In coming home Jacob was a different person. Naturally Jacob was not sure how Esau would receive him. Would it be a hug around the neck or a knife in the gut? One of the most beautiful of human experiences is expressed in Genesis 33:4, “But Esau ran to meet Jacob, embraced him, threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.” Esau forgave Jacob. There is nothing in all the earth better and sweeter than real, deep, and genuine forgiveness. That forgiveness paved the way for Jacob to go on to become one of the great patriarchs of the Old Testament and of Christianity.
There are some Esau’s here at SUMC. Like Esau, you are holding a grudge against someone.
They did nasty to you. They wronged you. They hurt you. They have stolen something very precious to you. They did horrible things to you. Humanly speaking, you have every right to be angry, to count them as your enemy. You have every right to ignore them, to pretend they don’t exist, to even attempt to frustrate them and undermine them via gossip to others. But if you claim the name of Jesus, then God is calling you to be like Esau in another way—in the way Esau forgave Jacob. God is calling you to forgive the way He forgave you, i.e. to forgive utterly and completely with no strings or conditions attached. Humanly speaking you cannot forgive. It’s not in you. But with Christ in you, you do have the power and the grace to forgive.
There are also in our church some Jacobs. You have done someone dirty. There is no doubt that you are guilty. No matter how hard you try to rationalize your actions and excuse your behavior, you are smack down guilty. You stole a brother or sister’s self-respect. You cast dispersions upon their character or at least their intent and motive. You committed the worst of sins by murdering them with your tongue. You brought that person to the point of hatred against you. It is your fault!
As soon as you realize that, the sooner you will be like Jacob and go to that ‘Esau’ in your life confessing you sin and asking for forgiveness. If you claim the name of Jesus, then God is calling you to just do it. When that happens there will be great release and relief! You will again experience God’s peace and the fullness of the Spirit’s presence in your life.
How sad and pathetic, how sinful when we hold grudges and resentments against one another. Like Esau and Jacob God is calling you to forgive and to seek forgiveness, to be reconciled one with another. God knows you don’t want to do it and He knows it is a hard thing for you to do. But He says to do it anyway and promises that He will give you the courage, the strength and the grace to get it done!
As we partake of the Lord’s Supper hear these comforting words from Jesus (Luke 6:37), “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”