READING: John 1:35-51
SOUNDTRACK: the blissful quiet of a house before all are awake
Jesus begins to call His first disciples:
Andrew had been one of JtB’s disciples who upon hearing JtB’s declaration (the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world) that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah, literally begins to follow Him. This interaction was enough to convince him John was right and he runs to get his brother, Simon.
“So you are Simon son of John?” Jesus rhetorically asks.
There are some British phrases which I love. Typically in America we would say something like, “Our drummer is named Tom.” The British would say, “We have a drummer called Tom.”
I like ‘called’ better, because as humans we love to name things: animals, cars, battleships. I have a friend who names each new server we get at the church… we’ve been naming things since the Garden. And while we have our chosen names for things, we call them one thing, there are many instances in Scripture where God has an altogether different idea. My name, for instance, means ‘dark water’. Simon, in Hebrew means ‘listening, obedient’.
Yet Jesus tells him, “You shall be called ‘Peter’” and that is how most of us know him today. ‘Peter’ means ‘rock’ and anyone who has read through the gospels sees that if anything he was not necessarily a rock of stability. He often was the one to lob a dumb question (from our perspective). But a question that was most likely on the other disciples’ minds.
But then look at what happened at Pentecost after the resurrection! Peter does become a ‘rock’ and a pillar within the first leadership of the Church. Jesus knew who Peter would be.
As the much overplayed song on the radio says, “there is hope for me yet… God’s not finished with me yet.” And Revelation indicates that there are least some (the overcomers) who receive from Christ a white stone that has written on it their new name – the name He knows them as.
I wonder what God’s name is for me. Because while ‘dark water’ may be fitting on some days, I’d rather be less brooding and more useful.
What, perhaps, is God’s name for you? Not how you see yourself, but who He knows you to be and who you will become through His grace?
Next we are told that Jesus tells Phillip to follow Him. Phillip excitedly goes to get his doubtful brother Nathanael, telling him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
Phillip sees enough of Jesus to see that He is not just a good teacher, or a new prophet, but rather the fulfillment of the prophecies.
Nathanael retorts with, “Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Nazareth at the time (I have heard) was a melting pot of ethnicities and cultures. People from many nations; of many religions lived there. To the upright Jew, Nazareth was seen as a cesspool of sorts – that no one of moral standing could possibly come from that degenerated area. (Aside: Again what a picture of the heart of God that He chooses to live in this type of area! Not with those who have it ‘together’)
“But come and see!” Phillip insists.
Nathanael, reluctantly I am sure, goes with him. Before he can say a word, Jesus says of him, “Look! Here is a true Israelite in whom there is nothing false (no deceit).” I have also read – but cannot verify – that Jesus’ words mean: “Here is a true Israelite, whose bloodline is pure.”
Regardless, it is enough to catch Nathanael’s attention.
“How do you know me?” he asks of Jesus.
To paraphrase Jesus’ response, He says, “Before your brother told you about me, I saw you sitting under the fig tree.” It was very likely that not only had they been separated by some distance, but that given Jesus’ earlier declaration of who Nathanael was, that Nathanael may have been in prayer while under that tree.
It is enough for Nathanael to instantly declare that Jesus is both the Son of God and the King of Israel – no light titles indeed!
You can almost hear the broad smile in Jesus’ response:
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." 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."
Greater things!
And he alludes to Himself as Jacob’s ladder – the bridge between heaven and earth – the One who would restore the rift, the broken relationship. Ultimately this ladder finds its fulfillment at the cross. Nathanael has met the promised One – the Messiah, God’s Son, the King of Israel.
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