But Nathanael said to him,
“Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
The Church in her tradition associates Saint Bartholomew with Nathanael in the Gospel of John. Nathanael is a reassuring character, a bit jaded perhaps, not overly credulous, nor susceptible to manipulation by flattery. In short, he seems much like ourselves or people we know.
“Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no duplicity in him.”
Whether or not Nathanael saw this in himself we can recognize in him this lack of duplicity about which Jesus spoke. In this brief portrait we see someone who said what he meant in a fashion that was almost a little too direct. Nathanael himself might not have viewed this as an entirely positive trait as it may well have been off putting to others at times. But Jesus praised it. Confoundingly, he praised it even though he had not apparently had occasion to observe it. Hence the question, “How do you know me?”
Jesus gave an answer Nathanael's question that sounded simple on the surface, but which apparently meant much more.
Jesus answered and said to him,
“Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
Nathanael answered him,
“Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
Jesus had seen and known Nathanael before he had the opportunity to meet him and learn about him in the usual human way. He had a knowledge of him that transcended human limitations. Nathanael for his part may well have been someone accustomed to being misunderstood and accustomed to disappointment. Being known by Jesus in this way would have been an utterly unique experience in which being exposed did not lead to being hurt or manipulated. When we see others revealed at a more than superficial level our tendency is often to condemn, to criticize, and to use what we learn in such a way is to build up our own pride and pursue our own goals. In knowing Nathanael Jesus was nothing like this. It was rather a knowledge that held him in love before anything was asked or stated. Anything that happened on the basis of this knowledge happened precisely because of the love from which it was inseparable.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (see Psalm 139:13-14).
Jesus knew that Nathanael still did not know entirely what to make of this experience. But rather than entering into a detailed explanation or even allowing him to calm down much before continuing he only pointed toward still greater things he was yet to see. Now that this jaded individual's heart was opened Jesus desired to stuff it brimful of hope.
And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will see heaven opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Even if we are not people like Nathanael we certainly know people like him. We know people who may seem too world worn and cynical to accept the Messiah about whom Moses wrote. But we see in today's Gospel that we shouldn't write them off immediately. Our own part in their story need not be that of the grand convincer, which is the job of the Spirit. Instead we are to be like Philip:
Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Nathanael may well have been the last person to think that he would one day have his name inscribed on the foundation stones of the heavenly Jerusalem. But it turned out that he didn't know himself as well as Jesus knew him. He didn't realize what of what he was capable as much as Jesus did. Jesus worked through Philip to extend the initial invitation, but he himself took care of the rest.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
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