NOTES for Joh 1:51

These words, spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ to Nathanael, mean that "from now on," from the moment of Christ's coming into the world, a radical change is taking place in the universe. The fall of man led to the fact that heaven became closed to us; between the world above and the world below there is an abyss. In Jacob's vision (Gen. 28:12), this abyss is bridged by a mysterious ladder on which angels can ascend and descend, but this is in a dream; in waking reality there is no such ladder, and the appearance of angels in this world is an exceptional event. Traditionally Christians considered Jacob's ladder a symbol, a prefiguration of the Most Pure Virgin through whom Christ passes.

Here the Lord Jesus says that this ladder has become reality, heaven is opened, and the manifestation of God's will and power in the earthly world becomes the norm. This "ladder," this "bridge" joining God and His creation, is Christ Himself, the God-man. He is the Son of God who descended from heaven, and He is also the Son of Man ascending to the Father; and when His ascent, the Ascension, is accomplished, two-way movement between Heaven and Earth will be opened, and the Holy Spirit will descend at Pentecost upon the apostles into this world as into His own inheritance. The vision of the opened heaven is indeed granted to people: John the Baptist sees it during the Lord's Baptism, three apostles during the Transfiguration, the protodeacon Stephen before his execution, the apostle Paul during prayer, the apostle John the Theologian in Revelation, and many other saints. It is possible for us as well, but more important is what the Lord Jesus also says: "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."