All this month we are looking at the dramas of the Old Testament. Stories filled with harrowing accounts and death-defying drama that was passed down from person to person long before HBO became a prized premium subscription network on our televisions. The way we stand around now and talk about the latest episode of our favorite TV shows is likely the same in the enthusiasm for the drama that existed when these stories were told over and over again throughout the ages. Stories of brother against brother and women of little means taking big risks to defy the king.... so much drama and so many life lessons along the way. And in HBO's "Boxing After Dark," the subscription channel highlights not a fictional drama, but real-life boxing matches, often between less well-known fighters with something to prove. A fight for recognition and prominence.
This week's HBO (Harrowing Biblical Occurrence) is the story of Jacob wrestling all night with the strange man. Jacob goes boxing after dark.
Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me. So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then the man said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him.
Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me. So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then the man said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him.
What on earth is going on in this passage? What could be the strange man/angel/ghostly figure that Jacob wrestles with? Is Jacob imagining this wrestling or is it actually happening? What does it mean to wrestle with some unknown entity all night until daybreak? To the point of actually being hurt by the wrestling?
Jacob refuses to stop the wrestling, even after being hurt, until he receives a blessing from this 'man.' He continues to struggle until the blessing occurs. He chooses the fighting and chaos over the moment of crying 'uncle' in the midst of intense battle. Why? Why is the blessing (the recognition, the prominence??) so important to Jacob at this moment.
In this time of intense fighting in the Middle East, between Hamas and Israel's army ("Israel" is the name Jacob receives after this wrestling, because, as the fellow wrestler said, "you wrestle with God and man."), many theological conversations could be had about the continued wrestling, even to the point of injury, without giving in, until a blessing (peace treaty?) is reached. Those issues are very complex and difficult to tease out and much more intense than a mild comparison made by a lifelong Methodist, so I'll just leave that idea to sit there. Wrestling to the point of injury so that a blessing can be received.
We read in the gospels that Jesus does his own boxing in the dark, so to speak, at the Garden of Gethsemane, doesn't he? He wrestles with this path he feels compelled to be on, even to the point of sweating actual blood droplets. Jesus is not going to the cross without intense, blood-sweating, struggles in his soul about the choices (yes, choices) he is making.
What makes us wrestle within ourselves? Why do you continue to go 'boxing after dark?' What struggles do we continue to take part in, even to the point of injury to ourselves? What makes us hang on to a struggle no matter what... what is 'the blessing' we are seeking from the struggle? Email me or comment below.
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