Question: Does anyone not know of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”? Most likely, we’ve all listened to it multiple times. It’s one of the most iconic songs in music history and it contains some very powerful imagery. Bear with me as I list some of Robert Plant’s lyrics below and then pose a question:

There’s a lady who’s sure
All that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for

And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
There’s a sign on the wall
But she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know, sometimes words have two meanings

In a tree by the brook
There’s a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

Ooh, it makes me wonder

Ooh, it makes me wonder

There’s a feeling I get
When I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen
Rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking

Ooh, it makes me wonder

Ooh, it really makes me wonder

And it’s whispered that soon
If we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn
For those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter

If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now
It’s just a spring clean for the May Queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
And there’s still time to change the road you’re on

And it makes me wonder

Your head is humming and it won’t go

In case you don’t know
The piper’s calling you to join him

Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow?
And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all, yeah
To be a rock and not to roll

And she’s buying a stairway to heaven

If you were humming the tune in your head, don’t worry, I was, too. But now for the question: Do you see the recurring image Plant has in the lyrics? It’s this stairway that ascends to heaven. Everything hinges on that. It “lies on the whispering wind” and it the lady of the song is “buying” this stairway, per multiple lines. Over and over again, the heroine of the song labors to purchase her craving because she’s convinced that “all that glitters is gold.” This stairway to heaven is the link, the nexus, the connection between the human and the divine.

Jacob’s Dream: In Genesis 28, the patriarch Jacob (Abraham’s grandson) has a dream. The text reads as follows: “And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder [stairway] set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. Ang behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring” (Gen 28:12-13, ESV). 

The imagery is straightforward. This massively important man Jacob, grandson of Abraham and son of Isaac, soon to be renamed Israel, lies down for a nap on his way to Haran. He has this dream. And in his dream, he sees this stairway to heaven. God is atop it. And going up and down this stairway to heaven are angels/heavenly hosts. God was getting Jacob’s attention, you see, to teach Jacob something about himself and a lot about God. 

Connection to Christ: When the Gospel of John opens, the first chapter is one of the richest in the entire Bible. For good reasons, John is called the gospel of Christology. It focuses on Christ as God. It hinges on the person and work of Christ/Christ as the God-Man. John teaches over and over again that Jesus was and is God incarnate. 

There’s a scene in the last section of John 1 where Jesus interacts with Nathanael: 

 ⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” ⁴⁸ Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” ⁴⁹ Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” ⁵⁰ Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹ And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Question: Did you catch that in verse 51? Jesus told Nathanael that he would see heaven opened and the angels of God going up and down. Where? On the Son of Man (Jesus’s favorite appellation for himself). The exact same imagery as from Genesis 28 with Jacob. 

Encouragement: The stairway to heaven is not something that can be purchased but only received. The stairway to heaven is not a thing but a person. The stairway to heaven is the one who bridges the chasm between sinful men and holy God. “For there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5, ESV). Jacob was awed by what he saw in his dream. And Nathanael was awed by what he was privileged to see—namely, God in the flesh, Christ Jesus, the stairway to heaven, the one who can never be purchased as if he were gold, because he is the one who created gold and everything else, and upholds it all by the word of his power, God himself.