John 1: 43-51 (January 15, 2012): Come and See

Come and See
John 1: 43-51 (January 15, 2012)

The Text

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Perspectives/Questions

Faith with and without signs

Today’s text is not an easy one, especially the enigmatic verse 51. When one tries to understand a section of John’s gospel, it is often helpful to look first for connections to other parts of the Bible. Connections have been made to Mark 14:62 (“you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven”) and to Genesis 28:12, where Jacob dreams of angels ascending and descending on a ladder. On the basis of these verses, Raymond E. Brown has argued that the main point of the verse is that Jesus, as the Son of Man, is the locus of divine glory. He is the one who connects heaven and earth. The Son of Man functions in this capacity throughout the gospel. Jesus acts on earth as the (already) glorified Son of Man.

This saying, then, functions as a climax. The ultimate outcome of the calling of the various disciples is that they will see Jesus’ glory, above all the glory of his resurrection. In the immediately preceding verse (1:50), Jesus tells Nathanael he “will see greater things than these,” a reference not only to Jesus’ miracles (5:20) but also to the resurrection and its consequences.

Jesus’ words invite Nathanael to a deeper faith. Note that Nathanael begins with skepticism. Philip then invites Nathanael to “come and see.” Nathanael accepts the invitation, and after witnessing Jesus’ powers of perception, he believes Jesus is the “Son of God and the King of Israel.” Jesus tells Nathanael that he will see greater things than these (his powers of perception). This exchange points to the ambiguous relationship between faith and sight in John’s gospel. On the one hand, John recognizes the usefulness of signs for faith (e.g., 2:11; 20:31). Nathanael is promised greater signs, which will lead to deeper faith. Yet on the other hand, John seems to regard faith without signs as superior to faith with signs (4:48; 20:29). This paradox is not so much contradiction as it is profound theological insight: the revelation of Jesus’ glory within history (in his signs and wonders) points beyond itself to Jesus’ glory that transcends history, in the resurrection. Belief in the resurrection is the ultimate form of faith. Although signs and historical witnesses can assist belief in the resurrection, such belief ultimately must stand on its own, rooted in the conviction that “the Father raises the dead and gives them life” (5:21).

Who is Jesus to you?

John 1:43-51, much like the entire first chapter of John, seeks to establish the true identity of Jesus. By the end of the first chapter, the Fourth Evangelist piles on Jesus no less than six messianic titles, including the Word, the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the Messiah, him about whom Moses and the prophets wrote, and the King of Israel.

Another striking feature of John’s Gospel is the advanced time-table by which his disciples recognize Jesus as the Messiah. While the Synoptic Gospels show Jesus chronically misunderstood by the disciples, receiving only fleeting glimpses of his true identity, John’s characters see things with crystal clarity. The Gospel of John ends its 20th chapter with a postscript indicating that the entire Gospel was written so that the reader might come to believe the same, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.

In this text, the disciples immediately see him as the fulfillment of all that has been promised, and yet Jesus pushes them even further. He goes on to say that he is much more than the Messiah. At the end of the first chapter, after Jesus has been given the name of every Messianic figure imaginable, he uses yet a different title to describe himself – Son of Man. Differing again from the Synoptics, John uses the term Son of Man to speak of Jesus as the bridge between heaven and earth, between divinity and humanity. He blends it with the image of Jacob’s ladder from Genesis 28:12 and identifies Jesus as the “locus of God’s activity on earth”. This only enhances the powerful claims made by the incarnational hymn of verses 1-14, which claims that the “Word became flesh and lived among us.”

The clarity with which John’s cast of disciples understands Jesus is a unique gift of this Gospel. Being a disciple is not simply being in the company of Jesus, it is an active recognition of Jesus’ identity. What is similarly astonishing is that they all use different voices, a variety of languages. To John the Baptist he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; to Andrew he is both Rabbi and the Messiah, to Philip he is the one of whom Moses and the prophets wrote; to Nathanael he is the Son of God and King of Israel. Not one disciple articulates Jesus’ identity in the same way. Discipleship through John’s eyes entails a clear understanding of who Jesus is to you. And yet, at the same time, Jesus is always enhancing, always adding onto our limited conceptions of him, always revealing himself to us in new ways.

c. Come and See

Nazareth wasn’t a good place to put on your resume as your place of origin. In fact if there was Facebook back then, you wouldn’t acknowledge that you were from there on any social media. Nazareth was a dump. Nazareth was nowhere.

But, Jesus came from Nazareth. Despite the setbacks of being from there, the Nazarene Jesus had insight and intuition that the best family, geography and education cannot give. He knew people, their nature, their motivation and their desires. That is what drew him to Nathanael as he saw him standing under the fig tree.

Standing under your own fig tree is a symbol of comfort and blessing in the language of the Old Testament. To be under your fig tree was to be home and arrived. Nathanael was standing in that space. Strangely, there is a restlessness in the human spirit that is not satisfied with the shade of our own particular circumstance. A longing and a yearning for more. Was it this that Jesus sensed in Nathanael? Did he see in the shaded man, something restless wanting to grow?

Nathanael wasn’t impressed with Jesus. It was Philip who cut through Nathanael’s cynicism about Nazareans, “Come and see.” The most simple and effective of evangelistic invitations.  It is the beginning of growth and liberation. “Come and see“. It seems that it is not enough to stand afar off in our comfort zones and formulate opinions from a distance. We have to “Come and see“. That is what changes our lives.

Jesus finds Nathanael right where he is in his comfortable, fig tree shadow, the place of his prejudiced opinions, and then Jesus leads him on to greater adventures. He tells Nathanael he will see heaven opened and angels ascending and descending. The next and only time we hear of Nathanael, after his meeting with Jesus under the fig tree, is on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in one of those mysterious post resurrection events.

I wonder if Nathanael remembered, as he stood there in the presence of the crucified and risen one, that the words he heard those three adventurous years ago had come true, “You will see greater things than these.“

Perhaps if we will get out from under the shade of our own prejudiced opinions, we may see greater things too?