Conclusion of today’s Gospel:
[Jesus said to Nathaniel] “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:51
In older translations Jacob has a vision in his sleep where he sees angels ascending and descending upon a ladder reaching from earth to heaven. (Genesis 28:10-17) Latterly, translators realized he was thinking of something like the step-pyramids or ziggurats that were used for worship in various middle eastern cultures of Jacob’s day. Less like a ladder, more like a stairway to heaven. Jacob realizes this place is a focus of God’s presence and of revelation of Himself to Jacob.
Here, at the very beginning of John’s Gospel, Jesus agrees that messengers (“angels”) ARE delivering life-changing words from God–but the stairway/ladder itself is not a pile of stones in a particular location. Instead it is Jesus Himself, THE connection between heaven and earth. The place is replaced by the Son of Man, our Lord. All the messages to and from heaven pass through him.