Wrestle

What is the heart of the Bible? What is the passage, verse or story that sums up the whole? There are several iconic passages, sayings that almost everyone knows, Christian or not. “Do unto others…” “For God so loved the world…”

I think the one story that sums up the Bible, that tells us what the whole book is about and what God wants from his people, is in Genesis. Genesis 32:22-32. It is a strange story, and one that doesn’t often make the Sunday school list. Jacob wrestles at Peniel. This is the story that tells us what the Bible is all about.

A man on the run from one family member and trying make peace with another, sleeps alone at night. Alone and afraid of what will happen the next day. Completely unsure if this night will be his last. A stranger appears, and they wrestle. The opponent wins, he wounds Jacob, but Jacob just won’t let go until the stranger blesses him. So the stranger changes Jacob’s name.

I always thought that this story was weird, and I finally began to understand it when I read another near-eastern piece of literature called Gilgamesh. In this story, a man from the wilds comes to meet the king, Gilgamesh. They take one look at each other and start wrestling. They wrestle around the entire city until they are exhausted, and at the end of the fight, they are best friends.

How often do we make friends of the people we fight with? It is a constant theme in romance stories, two people sniping and bickering, sparring verbally or physically, until they decide they actually like each other. A relationship always beings with a time of testing, a wrestling match. When we fight we show our true colors, and we learn about each other.

The Bible is about humankind wrestling with God. Wrestling for understanding. Wrestling for truth. Wrestling for hope and grace and justice. We strive against God and strive to find God, we stretch and strain to understand who God is and what God wants. We try to figure out how we should live, even if it’s not how we want to live. We reach up and try to keep hold of the divine, and if we can hang on and refuse to let go, like Jacob, we will be changed.

God wants us to wrestle with him. God wants us to ask the tough questions, even if we can’t find straightforward answers. He wants us to take risks, get mad, strive to find the truth of who he is and what this world is all about. God wants to wrestle with us because that is how we draw close to him. We can’t grow if we avoid situations that teach. We can’t understand someone if we only look at the things we like at first glance. We need to dig deeper, go past the surface, get down and dirty and personal. The search to understand and love the creator is a fight that we can’t stop pursuing, can never let go of.

And if we can hang on, if we are willing to get into the ring and give it our all, we might come out with a limp. We’ll probably get hurt in the process, and we’ll be tired, very tired before the end. But we’ll be different. Changed.

Better?

I hope so. Because I think God is worth the effort. So I’m hanging on.