The stairway to heaven

“[Jesus] then added, ‘I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.’” John 1:51
In John 1:35ff we see how some of the disciples were initially called by Jesus – Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael. Nathanael was initially skeptical, when Philip told him that Jesus was from Nazareth (John 1:45-46). But Jesus demonstrated His divine knowledge about Nathanael and what he was doing at the time Philip spoke to him (John 1:47-48), and Nathanael knew at once that Jesus was indeed the Messiah (John 1:49).
Jesus says to Nathanael, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Apparently, what Nathanael was doing was reading and meditating on the Scriptures – specifically, the story of Jacob. Jesus’ initial words to him were, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false”, which could also be translated, “Here is a true son of Israel, in whom there is no Jacob” (since the name ‘Jacob’ means deceiver).
Jesus then makes a reference to Nathanael seeing “heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”. This is not referring to His baptism, where the Holy Spirit descended like a dove upon Him. Rather, it is again a reference to the passage about Jacob that apparently Nathanael was reading: his dream at Bethel of the stairway (or ladder) reaching from heaven to earth with angels ascending and descending it (Gen. 28:10-12). What Jesus is saying here is that He is that stairway. The angels were not ascending and descending ‘onto’ Him, but ‘on’ Him. Thus the picture of Jesus being the stairway is heaven’s way of reaching down to earth. Jesus came down to our level, so that we might be brought up to His level. We cannot reach God by our own merits. We need to use the stairway He has provided – that of Jesus Christ.