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“My Name Is Nathanael"
Epiphany 2
January 18, 2009John 1: 43-51
It Began With a Fig Tree! My name is Nathanael. I am a disciple, a student follower of Christ Jesus. I learned from him when I walked beside him for three years and I have continued to learn from him ever since. I suppose you could also say that I am an apostle, that is, one who is sent with a commission. So how did all this come about? Well, you might say that it started with a fig tree! There I was, sitting under the fig tree in front of my house – sitting in the shade, praying, meditating on scripture. It was a place where I sat quite often, sometimes even napping, but more often, not. Then, hurrying toward me, excitement evident in his gait, came my friend Philip. So who is Philip? Probably my best friend. The two of us often sat beneath a fig tree, walked down the road, sat in his house or mine, or spent time in the synagogue discussing scripture. We would read from Torah or the Prophets, especially what Moses or one of the prophets had to say concerning the Messiah, or even wondering if certain verses, e.g., the “suffering servant” verses from Isaiah, even had to do with the Messiah. Well, here came Philip. As he drew near he exclaimed, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” I then said those words that I have occasionally regretted saying, ever since my young friend John included them in his letter. I said: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” You need to know that Philip is from Bethsaida in Galilee, and I am from Cana in Galilee, and of course Nazareth is in Galilee. To be honest we considered Nazareth to be what you nowadays might call a “one cow town” – it was pretty backwater, and I suppose it was okay to pass through but I could not have imagined staying there. John, I think, included it in his letter to show the irony that those who disbelieved called Jesus the “son of Joseph” and also said that no prophet could come from even Galilee. At any rate, Philip responded with three words that forever changed my life. He said, “Come and see.” And the two of us began to walk down the road and Philip told me how he had been talking with Jesus and Jesus had said, “Follow me.” And now Philip was taking me to see Jesus and already by his excitement, by his testimony and witness, I was already believing in this Jesus whom I hadn’t even met. It now reminds me of the testimony of the Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at the well, how she ran into her village crying, “Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did,” and how many of her fellow villagers believed in Jesus because of her witness, how others went to see for themselves. And as we neared Jesus he saw us coming and exclaimed of me: “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Now Jesus wasn’t using hyperbole and saying I was without sin, and he wasn’t making a sarcastic response to my “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” comment. I never gave it a thought because I, and all who were there, knew what he meant. He referred to Jacob who deceived both his older brother and his father about Esau’s birthright. Then later in life he “wrestled with God” and was transformed and God named him Israel. Had Jesus called me a Canaanite or a Galilean or even a Jew then he might have meant something else, but because he said what he said, my instinctive response was “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus said that he had seen me under the fig tree before Philip called me. Well I knew that Jesus hadn’t passed by on the road because it’s only a few yards from my fig tree and I would have seen him. And he hadn’t seen me from behind or the side because of the houses that are there. And here Philip had told me to “come and see” and I went with him and saw, but Jesus had also seen me, perhaps not in a physical sense, but in some way I can’t understand. But even more importantly he had seen into my heart and knew that I tried to do as best I could, that I was fervent in my desire to deceive no one by accident or by intent. All I could say was “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” I had already come to believe because of Philip’s witness and now, well now, I was even more convinced. Jesus said “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under a fig tree?” I knew this was a rhetorical question as you might put it nowadays, but his knowing I had been under a fig tree was, again as you might put it, simply the “icing on the cake.” And Jesus continued: “You will see greater things than these.” “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” And I thought of Jacob and Jacob’s vision of angels descending and ascending, and I thought of the prophet Daniel and how he had written: “I saw one like a Son of Man who received from the Ancient of Days all authority, glory and power.” And I knew Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. I did not know what would come but I knew he was the Son of God. And I saw greater things. I saw him heal the sick, raise the dead, calm the sea, walk on water. I saw him arrested and I fled with the others. From a distance I saw him crucified. I was there when Mary of Magdala told us that the tomb was empty and she had seen Jesus, how he had told her to tell us that he was going ahead of us to Galilee. I was in the locked room, I was in the fishing boat when we were hailed at dawn and young John said, “It is the Lord.” I saw Peter who could not walk on water, jump overboard and show that he could swim. I saw Jesus when he told us that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that all who believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” I was there when he gave us the commission to make believers of all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit. I was there when he ascended into heaven. Oh! My brothers and sisters, there is so much I have to tell you about Jesus, so much I have to share, so much that I want to show you about him! Come and see! AMEN. Rev. Bruce Hannum, Associate Pastor
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
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