Dear Christian friends:

The choir just sang this important question: "Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free?" The answer to that question is two answers: Yes and No. Yes, Jesus must bear the cross alone. Only He is strong enough and good enough to suffer and die for the world's sin. Nobody else can substitute for Jesus. Yes, truly, Jesus had to bear the cross alone, and because Jesus bore the cross alone all the world can go free. But there is a second answer to that question. The song answers, "No, there's a cross for me." That is true also.

There is a cross for everyone! In the Gospel lesson, which I just read to you, Jesus said to His disciples, "If you want to follow Me, you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me." (Mark 8:34) That means that if we believe in Jesus and follow Him here in this wicked world the unbelievers will persecute us and mock us. I'm sure many of you have experienced that.

Also Jacob, here in our text, experienced that. His brother, Esau did not believe God's promise about the Savior who will come. Jacob believed in the Savior God promised to Abraham and his father Isaac. Esau hated Jacob and threatened to kill him. (Genesis 27:41) So Jacob is now fleeing from home and traveling to his uncle Laban's home in Syria, far away. But God gave Jacob comfort and support in that suffering as our text explains. So, also,


God watches over us and protects us as we carry the cross through life.

God watched Jacob and protected him and gave him much comfort, Jacob left home and walked about 40 miles the first day on his trip. By evening he arrived at a place called Luz, which means almond trees. Jacob was tired and so he found a rock for a pillow and lay down to sleep. While sleeping he dreamed a beautiful dream, which, I'm sure you all have heard about. "He saw a stairway standing on the ground reaching up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and coming down on the stairway." (verse 12) God always sends His angels to watch over His people to keep them and protect them from harm. But we can't see them because they are spirits, God's soldier spirits. However, this night, when Jacob was very lonesome and fleeing from his brother's anger, God let Jacob see the angels who were protecting him from Esau and robbers and wild animals.

So, God promises to send His angels to watch over you and me and to protect us from all enemies. We read in Psalm 91:10-11, "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy house. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." We do not bear our crosses alone. God is with us and watching over us and protecting us.

God also talks to us when we feel alone and comforts us with many sweet words, as He did here to Jacob.

In our text we read, "The Lord stood above the stairway and said to Jacob: "I am the Lord God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, your father. I will give to you and your children the land on which you are lying. Your children will be many, many, like the dust of the earth. Your nation will spread to the west and the east, to the north and south, and all nations of the earth will be blessed through you and your family. Notice! I am with you and will protect you wherever you go and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done all I promised to you." (verses 13-15) So God talked to Jacob and promised to be with him and bless him and bring him back home one day. Jacob does not carry his cross alone. God's word and promises give him support and comfort.

So, God also talks sweet words and promises to you and me. True, God does not appear to us in a dream or talk to us in our dreams, but He talks to us in a better way. How? Through the Word and Sacraments! Through preaching the gospel and through baptism and the Lord's Supper God speaks to us sweet words and promises of His love and forgiveness through Jesus, His Son. He lets us know, that we are not suffering for any wrong doing, but for good doing, for doing His work and living and walking in His holy ways. When Jesus commands us to "Go and teach all nations," He adds this promise: "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:19-20)

Therefore we should not fear what unbelievers say to us or try to do to us. We should with joy and boldness and pride take up our crosses and follow Jesus in this wicked world. Also, we should remember that when our work is done here on earth we exchange our crosses for crowns.

Jesus promises and admonishes us: "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tested; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." (Revelation 2:10) On the night before He was crucified Jesus gave comfort to His disciples. He said to them: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And where I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not where you go and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, except by me." (John 14:1-6) Yes, Jesus is the stairway that leads to the Father's house in heaven. Jesus died for our sins. Through faith in Him we have forgiveness and can go up the stairway to heaven, when our cross-bearing here on earth is finished! In his dream Jacob saw the stairway, too.

Must Jesus bear' the cross alone
and all the world go free?
No, there's a cross for everyone,
and there's a cross for me.

The Holy Cross I will bear
'til death shall make me free,
And then go home my crown to wear,
because there's a crown for me.
(Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone, hymn)

Amen.