Philip found Nathanael and told him,
"We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law,
and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth."
Philip did his best to exuberantly explain what he had come to believe about Jesus of Nazareth. He spoke with an infectious enthusiasm. But it seemed the Nathanael was resistant to what seemed to him to be excessive hype.
But Nathanael said to him,
"Can anything good come from Nazareth?"
Many people had difficulty with Jesus because of what was known superficially about his human origins. Even in Nazareth itself they had said, "Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?" (see Matthew 13:55). So even the backwater of Nazareth itself seemed to have no use for this upstart rabbi. Others were certain that the fact that he was from Galilee was a strike against his claims since "no prophet arises from Galilee" (see John 7:52). They thought, "we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from" (see John 7:27). But of course this was all prejudice and presumption. It was the result of trying to approach Jesus merely on the hearsay of crowds or trying to apply to him their insufficient preexisting categories. They all desired not to have Jesus explained, but to explain him away. They wanted to find a convenient mental slot in which to put him so that they could disregard any potential challenge to the status quo. We know there are many such people in our own time who might at this point say, "Can anything good come from Christianity?", thinking that they already know what Christianity is and what it represents.
Philip said to him, "Come and see."
Philip continued, not with additional details or explanation, but with persistence. He implied that there was more to Jesus than Nathanael's summary explanation would admit. The limitations of a person from Nazareth were not the final word in the story about Jesus. 'There is more', Philip seemed to imply.
"Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no duplicity in him."
Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?"
Although Nathanael only had a distant and prejudiced view of the identity of Jesus, Jesus knew Nathanael intimately. Nathanael was still resistant, no willing to succumb to mere flattery. What Jesus was saying was indeed what he desired to be in the depths of his heart. But no doubt even he doubted that he himself was or could be what Jesus described.
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree."
Something about this statement of Jesus revealed to Nathanael that Jesus really did know and understand him more than would be possible for a normal human, from Nazareth or otherwise. Jesus had spoken something that was hidden in the depths of Nathanael's heart and Nathanael could not pretend it had been otherwise. He had perhaps been dreaming of the Messianic age when "they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken" (see Micah 4:4). He had been longing for that Messianic age, hoping that he himself could have some part in it. It was precisely the depth of desire that put him on the defensive when Philip came to him with news that sounded too good to be true. But there was now no denying that Jesus had seen into the depths of his soul. He had affirmed Nathanael in his hope for life in the Messianic age. There was now no turning back.
"Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."
In conclusion to this discourse Jesus hinted that what was to come would do even more to reveal his true identity and heavenly origin. He was Jesus from Nazareth, but also the word of God that became flesh and dwelt among us. He was the bridge uniting heaven and earth. Much more true of Jesus than it was of Jacob's dream of the ladder was what Jacob said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (see Genesis 28:17).
We can choose to place Jesus in preexisting categories and confine him by our limited old ways of thinking. Or we can choose to let him reveal himself to us, often by revealing us to ourselves. He desires to make himself known so that we too can share with him the fruits of the Messianic age.
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