“NATHANAEL: ONE WHO SAYS WHAT HE THINKS”

(John 1:43-51)

Use your imagination with me for a few moments. Imagine that you are a person with very clear ideas of the meaning of the Bible. You have studied Scripture extensively and have a pretty good grasp of its teaching. One day, as you are studying Scripture (which you do regularly), one of your friends gives you new information which seems to contradict what you know. Wouldn’t you correct your friend, based on your previous study? And if your friend insisted the new information was correct (in spite of what you are already convinced is the case), wouldn’t you drop what you were doing, go with him and check out his claims? It certainly seems logical. Once you learn new information, don’t you usually argue about its trustworthiness until other facts are uncovered which could change your views? Only with reluctance do you change your mind: right? In fact, aren’t most of us often guilty of the statement; “My mind is made up don’t confuse me with the facts!”

Welcome to the experience of a man named Nathanael. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke he is called Bartholomew. Here’s another disciple who has a couple of names. In the Gospel of John, we have the most unique account of how he meets Jesus and is called to discipleship. Keep in mind that each of the disciples of the Lord Jesus will be changed by Christ. Having met the Savior, they were challenged to change in behavior, in thought or in attitude. For Nathanael, the change was to expand his mind in order to accept Jesus as his Messiah. And notice that is precisely what he did! But we’ve jumped ahead of the game. Let’s learn two things about this man who receives such a specific call.

A.   NATHANAEL WAS A MAN WHO BLUNTLY SPOKE HIS MIND CONCERNING HIS CONVICTIONS!

When we read the Bible it is important that we see its message in the context of WHEN it was written. Look with me at the first portion of the encounter between Philip and Nathanael. In doing so, we will need to understand that John’s account, alone, includes the facts recorded here. The other three Gospels do not go into this detail. According to John 1:35-43, the verses preceding today’s passage, two disciples of John the Baptist meet Jesus and spend a whole day listening to his teaching. One of those is Andrew who goes off to recruit his brother Peter. The second of John’s disciples is inferred to be Philip. The following day Jesus recruits Philip, who then tries to recruit Nathanael for the disciple team. The scenario is this: Jesus is pointed out by John the Baptist as “the Lamb of God” (v. 36). Two of John’s followers leave him and begin following Jesus.

This brings us to the encounters of Andrew with his brother Peter and Philip with his friend Nathanael. Philip is so excited about finding the Messiah, that he finds his friend and tells him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” (v.45) All of this leads us to the first highlighted portion of our Scripture. Nathanael has a clear objection to the news Philip shares with him. Nathanael is a student of the Torah, the Word of God. (Christians know it as the Old Testament.) Nathanael is from the town of Bethsaida. The citizens of the towns of Bethsaida and Nazareth viewed each other with suspicion and competition. So Mister “Tell It As He Sees It”, Nathanael blurts out, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (v.46); this student knows the Old Testament teaching concerning the Messiah. In his mind it was completely ludicrous to consider the possibility the Messiah would come from such a despicable town, as Nazareth. Surely, the Lion of Judah would come from Judea and not the ungodly slum Philip mentioned. Nathanael’s previous study of the Torah, coupled with his present bias toward anything Nazarene, leads him to a conclusion about the Messiah that is completely different than what Philip shares with him. Nathanael speaks his convictions but then he follows Philip to explore for himself where his friend has gotten so mixed up about the Messiah. But, the plot thickens as we move to our second observation about this man.

B.   NATHANAEL WAS A MAN TO WHOM THERE WAS NOTHING FALSE!

Jesus states two facts in verses 47-48 to bring Nathanael to the conclusion: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!” (v.49). Here is a confession of faith from a student of God’s Word. Face to face with truth, Nathanael immediately changes his thinking.

Fact #1- “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”

Philip’s friend responds to Jesus with the question “How do you know me?” Jesus has a clear knowledge of Nathanael’s integrity and his desire as a student to know truth; duplicity and hypocrisy are foreign to this man. Nathanael knows this truth about himself, but he is staggered with the awareness that Jesus pinpoints this characteristic of his without having ever met him. Then it gets even more interesting. All of this interaction has a goal, on the part of our Lord Jesus. The Lord wants this man, this student, to be convinced of his Messiahship. So he dispels any doubt. He adds to the conversation:

Fact #2- “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

With this second interaction, this simple preacher asks you to please listen to what I need to share at this time. I consulted five major Bible sources about this statement. Unanimously they write that the phrase “sitting under the fig tree” is a rabbinical phrase (language teachers refer to it as an idiom). This phrase was used (all the time), during the time of Jesus, by rabbis when they referred to someone meditating upon or studying the Torah. We use idioms like, “I’m going to hit the sack” when referring to going to bed: or “I’m going to hit the books” when referring to studying. In the same way Jewish teachers used the idiom “sitting under the fig tree” to speak of meditating on scripture.

Add to this the final statement Jesus says to Nathanael (Verse 51) and you understand that Jesus even knew exactly what portion of Scripture this man was thinking about. It was the account of Jacob (a man known for his falseness) and the night when he saw angels ascending and descending a ladder from heaven to earth. (Genesis 28:10-17) Jacob had been filled with “guile” as students of the Bible know, having been forced to flee his father’s house because he had lied to him and had swindled his brother. If under those circumstances Jacob had been eligible for a revelation from God, would not Nathanael be even more worthy of the revelation concerning Jesus as the Messiah? Jesus implied that just as Jacob saw angels going up and down a ladder portraying the entrance into heaven, now Nathanael was given a greater revelation. The previous account of Jacob’s dream was always understood by Jews of the 1^st Century to be prophetic of a coming Messiah. Shockingly, Nathanael was meditating on who this Messiah might be. It is precisely at that time that Philip appears telling his friend “we have found the one Moses wrote about”. A greater revelation is now given to Nathanael. Now angels are ascending and descending by means of the Son of man, as written in verse 51, “on the son of Man.”.  Jesus, Himself, is the means and the way to glory. Specifically, the Lord is the Messiah who has the mission to answer human need. Nathanael has received his message for future evangelism. God calls on this student of scripture to “bear the good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people”!

No wonder Nathanael had the response he did! He is confronted with the fact that Jesus knew what he was studying, including the specific passage of the Torah. And, Jesus was making the assignment of this man’s call personal so Nathanael knew he was to represent his Lord! Once again, Jesus was taking a man where he was and beginning to transform him into the man that He wanted him to become. Christianity is all about us changing to conform to the Will of our Lord.

I always wondered why Jesus referred to Jacob’s dream in his conversation with Nathanael. But, literally from 5 out of the 5 commentaries (which I use to check my investigation when I study the Bible) I got the same answer. Jesus used a common phrase from the Jewish teachers of his day to show Nathanael that he possessed total knowledge of his thought process. And now that Jesus had come, Nathanael needed to be convinced of a Nazarene Messiah. Philip had become convinced after spending time visiting with Jesus the day before. Now it was Nathanael’s turn to be convinced.      

Church history tells us that Nathanael left Jerusalem following the beginning of the Church and headed into Armenia where he spent the rest of his life starting churches until his martyrdom for his Lord. Armenia is right smack dab in between Turkey and Afghanistan today.

So instead of being prejudiced concerning Nazarenes and others in his life, Nathanael was changed in order to be committed to a Messiah who was so in control of things that he even knew what this disciple was doing at all times. God knows those of us who are his children to the same degree. Will we let our prejudices, our hostilities, our resistance and our biases go in order to be open to God’s truth and grace?