John 1:43-51
The next day Jesus decides to go to Galilee. No reason for the trip is given. Maybe Jesus knew that the turning water into wine miracle was coming up and He had to be there for it. However, to the first disciples Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael, no explanation is given just the request, the invitation, “follow me”. This simple request, when honored, becomes a command followed in the service of the King of kings. Jim Elliot, a missionary who gave his life for the sake of the gospel, wrote in his journal, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” The first disciples didn’t yet know all they were in for but they were willing to leave family and business to look after itself in order to pursue Jesus and the fulfillment of God’s promises that Jesus, they hoped, represented.
Philip told Nathanael that Jesus is the reality that the foreshadowing of the Passover represents, the object of Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, Genesis 49:10, Numbers 24:17, Psalm 45:6. But Philip said Jesus was from Nazareth and Nathanael knew from Micah 5:2 that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. Nonetheless, Nathanael was sincerely eager for the things of God and got up to see as Philip challenged him, “come and see”.
Jesus demonstrates that he knows Nathanael’s heart. Sitting under the fig tree was the traditional place for Jews to study the scriptures. He knows that Nathanael was searching the scriptures for Him and tells Nathanael that while he thought he was looking for God he was, in fact, always in God’s sight.
Nathanael responds with a surprising exclamation. Given his earlier skepticism his immediate acceptance of Jesus as the Christ indicates that Jesus touched on something within him that elicited his enthusiastic response. Jesus tells Nathanael that the fulfillment of Jacob’s dream (Genesis 28:10-12) was standing there talking to him. Jesus is our ladder that reaches from heaven down to earth. Jesus is fully man, rooted as we are in the earth and Jesus is fully God extending higher than the highest heaven. Himself our bridge across a chasm that no one else could span. At Babel they tried to build from earth to heaven but could not. In the temple they tried to fill the chasm with the blood of sheep and goats but could not. Into all this hopelessness flows the blood of Jesus that bridges the gap, tears the curtain, kills death and pours out life everlasting upon us.
brotherpayne 