Stairway To Heaven

Stairway To Heaven
John R. Petrilli

If you’re a card-carrying member of the boomer generation, the name Led Zeppelin should ring a bell. The British rock group blazed across America in the seventies with their own style of pounding drums and winding guitar licks. One of their signature hits was “Stairway To Heaven”. The song lyrics describe an individual who has searched and supposedly found the evasive stairway that leads her to heaven. It turns out that, according to this song, that stairway is available to all who wish to ascend up it. And, again according to the song, no matter what pathway you choose in life, you’ll end up in heaven anyhow. While many of the concepts and certainly the conclusions of the song are Biblically way off the mark, the theme of the song is something actually addressed in the Scriptures. Is there really an actual stairway to heaven?

Jacob is one piece of work. His own deceptive character traits get him into and out of trouble more than once in the Biblical record. God has His own way of dealing with our character flaws and deficiencies, and one day He decided to go to work on crafty Jacob. Coming off a fresh episode of manipulation, Jacob finds himself fleeing the wrath of his cheated brother Esau. He’s desperate. Needing asylum fast, he follows his mom's directives to travel to a distant land and settle among his near relative Laban. On his journey he’s understandably stressed out with concerns about how this would all work out. God spots the anxiety and favors Jacob with a visit via a night dream (Gen. 28:10-17). The dream featured … you guessed it … a stairway stretching all the way from the ground and on up into heaven. The staircase was a busy thoroughfare where scores of angels were traversing in ascent as well as descent. Atop the staircase stood the Lord Himself, speaking words of incredible assurance and promise of richest blessing.

A second instance of a stairway appears much later in the gospel of John. Chapter one, verses 47-51 rehearse a conversation between Jesus and an Israelite named Nathaniel. A close buddy of Philip, Nathaniel was discovered sitting under a fig tree, perhaps in meditation, or more likely, just trying to stay cool. A few hours later Jesus reveals to Nathaniel that He had already seen the young man as he sat alone under that tree. Nathaniel is bowled over by the incredible statement, and instantly declares his conviction that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah. But Jesus surprises him even further by stating that he hadn’t seen anything yet. Nathaniel would someday see a heavenly stairwell with God’s angels leaving and entering them in their excursion to and from the earth. Jesus’ promise was a direct reference to Jacob’s earlier experience of God’s personal presence. God had in store for young Nathaniel the unique opportunity to enjoy firsthand fellowship with God the Son!

Which brings us to a later and final word from Christ regarding the stairway to Heaven. Near the middle of John’s gospel account the Lord discusses the topic of passageway into heaven once again with His disciples John 14:6). In this interchange Jesus openly declares Himself to be the living, personal fulfillment of that ladder to heaven which Jacob had seen, and which Nathaniel had been promised. There we find that this stairway is actually a Person, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the stairway to heaven, contrary to Led Zeppelin’s theory, is quite exclusive rather than all-inclusive. Instead of all roads leading to heaven, there’s really only one stairway that will get us there. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father EXCEPT through Me”. There are no “two paths you can go by”, and there aren’t many ways that will, “in the long run”, get you to heaven. There’s just one way. The Jesus way. The way of the cross, the empty tomb, and repentance and faith in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. And, to borrow from Walter Cronkite’s famous close, “That’s the way it is.” If you really want to reach heaven, Jesus is the way, He’s the Stairway … to Heaven. Why not begin your ascent through Him today?