Mid-week Devotional
Spiritual Jiu-Jitsu
Pastor Wes
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Transcript
I’m going to go ahead and say something that may sound a little crazy, stepping out on a limb, and suggest that Christianity has its very roots entwined with Jiu-Jitsu. What? I’m serious, hear me out. It wasn’t called Jiu-Jitsu then, but as I read the Biblical narrative of Jacob wrestling, it sure sounds like the high-level grappling, submission-based, gentle fighting art that we now know by the name of Jiu-Jitsu.
The Bible starts with the book of Genesis, where we find out about the origins of the earth, mankind, and the universe. We see the story of judgement, salvation, and redemption through the flooding of the earth and through God saving Noah and his family. And then there’s the call of Abram, for him to leave his roots and follow God to an unknown place. Abram listened to God, and followed His voice. He made mistakes along the way for sure- telling lies of deception for his self-preservation- but he was counted as righteous because of his faith, because of his belief and trust in God. As a result, God promised immense blessing to Abram’s descendants. His name was changed to Abraham and in a God orchestrated miracle, he and his wife Sarah conceived a son in their old age, and named him Isaac. Because of Abraham’s obedience, Isaac was also blessed. But like his father, Isaac also lied and deceived in an attempt to protect himself. Isaac and his wife Rebekah had twins, Jacob and Esau- and we very quickly find out that this generational sin of deceiving/self-preservation was passed on now to Jacob as well. At the birth of the twins, Esau came out first, and Jacob was grabbing ahold of Esau’s heal, as if attempting to prevent Esau from coming out first. In that culture, being the first born was a super big deal- the first born received so much more of an inheritance from the family estate. Later in life Jacob ended up swindling Esau, giving Esau a bowl of stew in exchange for the first-born blessing. Well, stealing birth rights isn’t quite that easy, so later Jacob also had to deceive his dad Isaac in order to really get away with preserving and prospering himself, and he was successful in that deception. Esau was thus enraged, and vowed to kill his brother Jacob.
Jacob had to run for his life, fleeing to live in another land with his uncle Laban. There he worked for many years, and ended up marrying Laban’s daughters- Racheal and Leah. Laban was a bit of a scoundrel himself, but Jacob actually ended up being the smarter scoundrel and really prospered with flocks of sheep, servants, camels, donkeys, and children. But eventually, Jacob pulled the ultimate deception on Laban and took all of his family and possessions away secretly and began journeying back towards his original home. The big problem now, was the question of whether he and his family would survive the wrath of Esau. Esau, even after the many years, surely had not forgotten what Jacob did to Him. What good will it have been for Jacob to have swindled and self-preserved, and prospered all these years, if only to end up getting killed and robbed by his bigger, badder, older brother Esau? So, Jacob has this “Come to Jesus” moment in Genesis 32, He calls out to God, remembering the promise of God to Abraham and Isaac, he shows humility and repentance and says “I am unworthy of all the favor and of all the faithfulness, which You have shown to Your servant; for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. Save me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children. For You said, ‘I will assuredly make you prosper and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be counted.’” (Gen. 32:10-12)
In this prayer, Jacob is (maybe for the first time in his whole life) humbly admitting that he has been less than honorable in his dealings- he says “I am unworthy” of all God’s lovingkindness and faithfulness. Yet in that humility and repentance, he is gently wrestling with God in reminding God of His promises. It’s like there’s this tension in saying “God you have been good- even though I don’t deserve it. And even though I don’t deserve it, will you still show yourself to be good?” And then either God gives Jacob a wise plan, or perhaps Jacob is thinking “how much do I trust God to be good, and how much do I still need to just look out for myself?”- I really don’t know which one it is, but Jacob sends servants ahead with hundreds of goats and sheep as gifts to Esau, then he sends a 2nd, and then a 3rd caravan, and lastly sends his immediate family at the back of the line to meet Esau. The idea probably being that he assumes Esau will take out his rage on the first group or two, and maybe be softened by the gifts, so that by the time his immediate family and he himself meet Esau- hopefully by that time he’s calmed down and they’ll survive.
So there Jacob is all alone. Probably not knowing if he will ever see any of his family, possessions, livestock, prosperous shepherding career- ever again. It’s dark, lonely, and probably the question pounding in his head is “Is God good, despite my mistakes?” He’s probably wrestling mentally with God’s promises, his life built on deception, would God forgive him, would Esau forgive him, what limits are there to God’s faithfulness, had God’s patience run out, would God take away everything from him in this one dark night as punishment for the life he’s lived? He’s at a crisis of belief. He had already prayed, confessing his unworthiness, yet claiming God’s promises- and now there was nothing left to do but wait. Scripture tells us that a man then wrestled with Jacob all night. This “man” is obviously a powerful being, either an angel or Jesus Himself, and is obviously a Jiu-Jitsu master. Perhaps in some sort of a leg lock he dislocates Jacob’s hip. And Jacob- the grabber of heals- perhaps has this man in a heal hook, and the man says let me go- but Jacob is holding on saying “I’m not going to let you tap out unless you bless me.” I can imagine them both sitting, facing each other, one tweaking the other’s leg, one tweaking the other’s heal- and they’re like “Tap out!” “No, you tap out!” The longest, best, rawest, UFC Jiu-Jitsu show is going down! And there in that fight, the Jiu-Jitsu master man says, “Ok, what’s the name you go by?” Jacob tells him and the man says “No, not anymore. From now on you will be known as Israel.” Israel means the one who strives with God.
This is incredible! Jacob realized that this wasn’t an ordinary man, he says after the fight “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.” (Gen 32:30) I’m sure he knew that at any moment during the fight, the “man,” probably God in human form (later fully revealed to us as Jesus), could have at any moment of the fight not only tweaked his hip, but could have smashed his body into a million pieces. Jacob, to be known from now on as Israel, gets up limping, yet so thankful for God and His mercy for not crushing him. He crosses over the river, walks to the end of the procession where his immediate family is, and there sees Esau approaching. He bows down to Esau seven times in humility, and here’s the moment of truth- Esau embraces Israel in a tackle hug and kisses him. Incredible! In what could only be described as a protecting act of God, Esau blesses his brother Israel, and allows him to pass unharmed with his family into the land known to us today as the land of Israel. And the rest is history. The nation of Israel, the nation Jesus the Messiah was born into, the nation through which the knowledge of Jesus spread to the ends of the earth, was birthed through this historic Jiu-Jitsu match that took place this one dark and lonely night of the soul thousands of years ago.
Jiu-Jitsu translates as the “gentle art.” Part of the idea behind it is to not inflict unnecessary damage to your opponent, but rather to hold onto them closely- so close that they are unable to cause any damage to you. As we wrestle with God- with understanding Him, His ways, His word- we must humbly realize that (like Jacob,) we are unworthy of His goodness, and yet, He is still good. May our wrestling with Him be in the form of Jiu-Jitsu- holding on closer and tighter to Him, because only in being close to him (even as we have questions and fears)- only in wrestling close with Him, can we find true blessing, forgiveness, hope, and purpose.