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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we have purchased or otherwise received something special—maybe a new home, car, or child—do we not like for other people to see it? Maybe we wrongly want to make them jealous, or maybe we simply want them to join us in rejoicing over whatever the something special is. If possible, we probably bring whatever the something special is with us, or maybe we carry a picture of it in our wallet or on our phone. If nothing else, we might invite others to come and see it for themselves. In the Gospel Reading appointed for today, the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Philip invites Nathanael to “Come and see”, and this morning we consider that Gospel Reading under the theme “Coming and Seeing”.
This Epiphany season is all about both the showing forth, the revealing or manifesting, of God in the human flesh of the man Jesus and that revealing’s resulting growth in the Church. Last week, with the Baptism of Our Lord, God the Father identified Jesus as His beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove (Mark 1:4-11). John the Baptizer, who baptized Jesus, saw that descent and bore witness to Jesus as the Lamb of God and Son of God (John 1:29‑34). Apparently as a result, two of John the Baptizer’s disciples followed Jesus, and Jesus told them to “Come and see”; one of those disciples was Andrew, who found his brother Simon Peter and told him they had found the Messiah, or Christ, and, presumably, the other was the apostle and evangelist John, who presumably found his brother James (John 1:35-42).
As we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, the next day, Jesus found Philip and called Philip to follow Him, and Philip found Nathanael and called him to “Come and see” Jesus. Jesus saw Nathanael coming and seems to have told other people with Jesus at the time to see Nathanael. Only St. John’s Gospel account mentions Nathanael, who was from Cana in Galilee (John 21:2), and, since at least the ninth century, people have long thought that Nathanael is the same person as the disciple and apostle whom the other Gospel writers call “Bartholomew”. The series of appointed readings we use seems to agree with that identification of Nathanael and Bartholomew, because it uses this same Gospel Reading for the August 24 Feast of St. Bartholomew. Admittedly the Gospel Reading does not record Jesus’s specifically calling Nathanael to follow Him, the way Jesus in the Gospel Reading called Philip and elsewhere called others, the way the Lord called Samuel in today’s Old Testament Reading (1 Samuel 3:1-10), but by pairing the two readings the lectionary series certainly seems to suggest that at least Samuel’s and Philip’s calls are common.
In the Gospel Reading, Philip found Nathanael, under a fig tree, perhaps studying or praying in its shade, and Philip said to Nathanael, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph”. The two men may well have discussed previously the Old Testament’s inspired prophecies about the Messiah, or Christ, but Jesus’s apparently originating from Nazareth and Nathanael’s judgment about that community (perhaps as a native of a nearby rival community), apparently got in the way of Nathanael’s believing that Jesus was the Messiah, or Christ. In that way, at least initially, Nathanael was like other Jews in St. John’s Gospel account, especially those in Jerusalem, who claimed to search the Scriptures and to believe Moses but yet did not believe Jesus, at least partly because of His origin in Galilee (John 5:30-47; 7:40-52). Jesus, Who knows what is in all people (John 2:24-25), perhaps somewhat ironically says of Nathanael, with his preconceived notions and opinions, that he is “an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit”.
What preconceived notions and opinions do we have that we bring to matters of the faith that may get in the way of our believing Jesus is the Messiah, or Christ? How do we resist Jesus’s calling us to “Come and see”? When we think of Jesus’s knowing what is in us, do we think of His knowing good or bad? To be sure, there is nothing good in any of us by nature, and even believers still have that bad, fallen, sinful nature clinging to them in this life. On account of that sinful nature and the actual sins it produces, we all deserve to be destroyed, both now and for eternity. But, when we turn in sorrow from our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake—when we repent and believe—then we are not destroyed but delivered. As we sang in the Introit, the Lord hears our cries and draws us up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and He sets our feet upon a rock, making our footsteps secure, putting a new song in our mouths, a song of praise to our God, so that many will see and fear and also put their trust in the Lord (Psalm 40:1‑5; antiphon: Psalm 40:10a, b).
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus apparently won Nathanael over to faith by revealing Himself to be God in the flesh, Who at a minimum knew Nathanael from seeing him under the fig tree before Philip called him, if not also even before that. No “extraordinary depth of human insight” can explain that knowledge, but only Divine omniscience can (Pieper, II:293). People may have thought Jesus to be both from Nazareth and the son of Joseph (confer Luke 3:23), but Jesus was born in Bethlehem as the Son of Man and the Son of God. Heaven opened at Jesus’s baptism and identified Jesus as God’s Son (Matthew 3:16-17; Mark 1:10). Jesus is the “ladder” that fulfills the dream of Jacob, who is also known as “Israel”: upon Jesus angels ascend and descend, and in Jesus—in His death on the cross for your sins and mine and in His resurrection from the grave—all the families of the earth are blessed (Genesis 28:12-15). Nathanael confesses Jesus as the Son of God and King of Israel: Nathanael, the “Israelite indeed”, knows His King! The one who is part of the remnant of Israel has no deceit (Zephaniah 3:13), and he is blessed as the Lord counts no sin against him (Psalm 32:2). We, too, are blessed as we repent and believe, for, as we do so, God forgives us all our sin; God forgives all our sin by grace through faith in Jesus, the Christ, or Messiah, Who has found us.
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus found Philip, and Philip found Nathanael, and Nathanael came and saw—it all seems so ordinary, as if it were accidental or just coincidental. But, God, by His will and decision (confer John 1:13), was taking the initiative and working then through ordinary means, even as God, by His will and decision, takes the initiative and works now through ordinary means: through water, words, bread and wine. God knows all people even before He forms them in the womb (Jeremiah 1:4), but most of us probably came to know Him as we were born from above with water and the Word in Holy Baptism; at the Baptismal Font is where we find Jesus, our link (the point of contact, as it were) between earth and heaven: there on earth we find the realities of heaven (John 3:1-15). As we who are so baptized here on earth privately confess to our pastors the sins that we know and feel in our heart, our called minister individually absolves us, or forgives us, in a way that is as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself, for through them He is dealing with us Himself. As we who are so absolved come to the rail of this altar, we not only with the eyes of faith see the Son of Man but with bread and wine we also eat His flesh and drink His blood, and so we have eternal life and will be raised up on the last day (John 6:53). As we sang in the Gradual, great is His steadfast love, or mercy, toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever; as a result, we ascribe to the Lord the glory due His Name, we bring an offering and come into His courts (Psalm 117:1-2a; 96:8)!
Even if we are not called to follow Jesus in the same way that the other disciples were called to follow Jesus, even if we are not sent to serve Him in the same way that the apostles were sent (and pastors are sent), we ourselves do come and see. So coming and seeing, we have something special—not necessarily a new home, car, or child—but with faith in Jesus Christ we have the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. So, we invite others—family, friends, coworkers, classmates—“Come and see”. Such simple invitations from people they know are how most people first come into the Church! As we repeat such simple invitations, the Lord works to overcome others’ preconceived notions and opinions. We, who like Nathanael have seen “greater things”, also in Jesus Christ do “greater things” (John 5:20; 14:12). Come and see!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +