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We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law,
and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.
Moses wrote of another like himself who would come, to whom the people would listen. The prophets predicted the coming of a messianic figure who would bring freedom to his people. They looked to the age when a royal son of David would reign on the throne after God finally cast their sins away and fully espoused himself to them as his people. There were many different threads of messianic prophecy but, according to Philip, Jesus himself was the one who fulfilled them all.
But Nathanael said to him,
"Can anything good come from Nazareth?"
It was only natural for Nathanael (also know as Bartholomew) to push back against the apparently excessive exuberance of Philip. It felt to Nathanael as though Philip had gotten caught up in the hype of someone who, if not a charlatan, could not be everything that had been claimed about him. He pushed back by questioning his humble origins. Superficially it made a lot of sense to wonder how someone with such a lofty destiny could come from such apparently humble origins. But such a view was based on prejudice, assumptions that Jesus would be a certain way because he seemed to come from a certain place and group of people. Yet even identifying Jesus as coming from any locale in Israel or on the planet earth could not do full justice to his identity. It wasn't enough to explain that there were many good and wise people living in Nazareth. It didn't help to mention that he had actually been born in Bethlehem. There was more to him than the accidents of his origins could explain. Thus, rather than debating Nathanael about his specific criticism he instead invited him to come and see for himself.
Philip said to him, "Come and see."
Many people in our own day think that they know something about Jesus because they place him in a category and use that category to define him. They think of him as a mythical figure, or a spiritual leader like Buddha or Muhammad. Or they seem him as the mascot of a authoritarian structure that uses superstition to control its members. It is probably helpful to explain why none of these is remotely accurately as a description of Jesus. But even more helpful, when possible, is inviting people to see for themselves. When people believe falsehoods about Jesus it is typically because they have accepted what they have been told by others. The best antidote to this is to ask them to give Jesus a chance to reveal himself to them. In the best cases people with integrity to desire the truth will find it.
"Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no duplicity in him."
People who take the invitation to come and see will discover a Jesus who knows them, who understands their deepest hopes and dreams. Nathanael likely hoped to have a place in the messianic age in which people would invite one another under their fig tree (see Zechariah 3:10). Jesus not only identified this aspiration but helped Nathanael to realize that it had basically happened to him. Suddenly Nazareth sounded not so much like a backwater town of no account but now more like the promised messianic branch of which prophets had spoken. Nathanael's entire life had been re-contextualized in one meeting.
"Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."
The way that Nathanael experienced being known by Jesus allowed him to come to belief that Jesus was indeed the long awaited Messiah. But there was still more yet to be revealed, more than Nathanael guessed or could have imagined.
You will see greater things than this."
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."
Jesus was the bridge between heaven and earth, and God's dwelling place among men. Nathanael took the invitation to come and see Jesus and found the fulfillment of his longings. But because he would also choose to remain with Jesus as a disciple he would "see greater things than this". So too for us. We must not stop or be content with an initial revelation about Jesus, even a very transformative one. We can always know him more deeply than we do. His transcendence guarantees that however much we have received there is always more to find in him.
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