Second Sunday after Epiphany, John 1:43-51

January 14, 2024
Pastor Jonathan Linman

Nathanael’s question to Philip we just heard in today’s gospel story reveals a lot about human nature. Philip is excited to share the good news about Jesus of Nazareth. Nathanael’s question was: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” You see, Nazareth was a back woods kind of place, small, inconsequential, not the kind of place you expect good things to come from.

This reveals the human tendency to be skeptical, doesn’t it? To be sure, it’s a gift of the human mind to ask probing, analytical questions. But genuine curiosity, because of human sin, can quickly turn in negative directions. Skepticism can easily become cynicism.

And such skepticism – making assumptions about other people, places and circumstances – can get in the way of our ability to apprehend really important realities. We see this dynamic at play in today’s first reading. The Lord was calling out to Samuel, but the Lord’s word had not been active for a while, so Samuel assumed that the voice calling to him was that of his human mentor, Eli. In short, Samuel was skeptical that God might be calling him. It took three times for Samuel finally to get it that God was calling him. We, too, are prone to making assumptions that cause us to miss out on some big stuff. And, alas, we’ve increasingly become a nation of skeptics and even cynics.

Getting back to the gospel story, I don’t know that Nathanael was cynical, as Jesus identified him as a person of faith with no deceit, a seeker of truth not given to indulging deception. But skepticism and downright cynicism are all around us in our nation and world. People are sometimes rightfully skeptical and cynical about institutions and authority figures who have failed us. And we’re suspicious of various kinds of media that often deceive us – hence the concerns about disinformation and fake news and all.

Recent years have seen erosions of trust in science and scientists, public health officials, colleges and universities, religious leaders, organized religions, and certainly politicians and advertisers. Some of this mistrust is exploited by others who, unlike Nathanael, are genuinely deceitful.

Because of all of this, it’s as if the question of our age is this: “Can anything good come out of anything or anyone anymore?”

This kind of cynicism that erodes trust in each other, that induces paranoia and further societal division, is incredibly corrosive in culture and society, and it seriously diminishes our quality of life. It’s a sad and tragic commentary on our times that we’re painfully enduring all of this in a year of a presidential election.

So, let’s continue our pursuit of good news, a silver lining in the clouds. Returning yet again to the gospel story, Philip’s response to Nathanael’s question, “can anything good come out of Nazareth,” was not to defend Nazareth or to get into a debate with Nathanael. No, Philip’s reply was simply this: “Come and see.”

That, then, led to Nathanael having an encounter with Jesus, who out of the blue said of Nathanael, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” That is to say, here’s an upstanding person of good faith.

This presumably was Nathanael’s first in person encounter with Jesus. How could Jesus draw such a profound conclusion about the character of Nathanel? Thus, it was completely natural for Nathanael to ask Jesus, “Where did you get to know me?”

Jesus’ reply was deceptively simple and seemingly inconsequential: “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Big deal. What’s so profound about that?

Here’s the thing: we cannot understand the significance of this seemingly casual encounter between Jesus and Nathanael without some knowledge of the biblical Greek. The phrase translated “I saw you” has to do with a kind of seeing that is more than just physically observing something. No, it’s a kind of seeing that is all about understanding the nature of Nathanael’s identity. It’s the kind of seeing embedded in the common utterance, “Ah, I see” – that is, now I get it. Jesus “got” Nathanael.

Jesus’ ability to really see and understand Nathanael reveals his omniscience, that as the Son of God, he is all-knowing. But the desire to really be seen and understood is another feature of human nature and experience. We generally long to be understood, acknowledged, to be truly seen, acknowledged, and accepted for who we really are. Being seen and acknowledged in our truth is a great gift which nurtures our sense of well-being and confidence as human beings.

And it was this gift of truly being seen by Jesus that immediately had the effect of erasing any skepticism on the part of Nathanael. For when Jesus said to Nathanael, “I saw you under the fig tree,” Nathanael exclaimed: “Rabbi [teacher], you are the Son of God! You are the king of Israel.” Nathanel didn’t come to these conclusions on the basis of abstract theological reasoning or debate. No, his confession of faith resulted from personal encounter with Jesus.

And again, such confession of faith was also the fruit of Nathanael’s experience of being seen truly for who he was. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” On the basis of his encounter with Jesus, Nathanael’s answer became, “Yes, absolutely, good comes out of Nazareth in Jesus of Nazareth.” This is good news!

And Jesus was able to see and understand Nathanael because he was present in the flesh for such personal encounter. Jesus, after all, is according to John’s gospel the word of God made flesh. In Jesus of Nazareth, God came down into the thick of human relationships and communities, the relationships he had with his father, Joseph, and his mother Mary, and the relationships between Philip and Andrew and Peter and Nathanael. That Jesus of Nazareth enters into our relationships is such good news and ultimately can have the effect of rebuilding trust in our cynical world!

That is to say, this flesh and blood personal encounter birthed Nathanael’s faith, his trust in Jesus as the Son of God. Speaking of trust overcoming doubt, here’s another interesting and compelling point about the whole trajectory of Jesus’ time on earth: this story at the very beginning of John’s gospel foreshadows the story at the very end of gospel, the story of so-called doubting Thomas who claimed that he would not believe that Jesus was alive again unless he saw Jesus’ wounded side and put his hand on those wounds. When Thomas had that incarnate, personal encounter, he, too, made the confession of faith: “My Lord and my God!” This was a confession of faith that proclaimed the profound, sacred significance of Jesus’ bodily death and his bodily resurrection that makes for the world’s salvation.

But the sad state of affairs in our world today is that such face-to-face holy encounters of truly being seen are in increasingly short supply. We are more and more isolated from each other. Our experiences of community and family are often thin and superficial. People spend most of their time looking at the screens of their devices rather than looking into the faces and eyes of the people we’re with.

But there’s still more good news and that is that holy, personal encounters are still available to us – in Christian community in the church.

When we are gathered here in person by the Spirit and we dwell with each other and with God’s word and the holy sacraments, the kind of encounter Nathanael had with Jesus is recreated for us here among us, Sunday after Sunday.

And on our better days, when we hear and experience the good news that God in Christ sees us deeply for who we really are and loves and accepts us regardless, our faith is kindled and rekindled, and we, like Nathanael, exclaim: Jesus, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!”

So, when today’s skeptics and cynics ask, “Can anything good come out of the church?” our response is like Philip’s, “Come and see.”

But what are we asking people to come and see? We are inviting people to come and see Jesus, and Jesus is here in word and sacraments in the church, a community that truly lives Jesus’ values of love and mercy and acceptance and safety.

So, we are called to nurture the kinds of realities in which there is something to see here in church, that church will be a safe and nurturing place of holy encounters. Hence Paul’s concern recorded in today’s reading from 1 Corinthians about sexual immorality and abuse having no place in genuine Christian community. We know tragically well how sexual boundary violations and sexual abuse in church inhibit others from seeing Jesus and being seen and loved and accepted by Jesus.

Folks, we have a great gift to offer our skeptical, cynical, mistrusting, paranoid world: the gift is of a place of genuine, healthy community where people can be seen and loved and respected and welcomed fully for who they are. That’s the significance of our public commitment to welcome all people regardless of features of their identity that others reject and refuse to see and accept.

What we have and know and are committed to here can go a long way in healing so much of what currently ails us in our whole country.

Thus, in word and deed we proclaim that we have “found the one about whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus from Nazareth.” And if we’re met with skepticism we simply say, “Come and see.” And if skeptical, cynical people come and see, then great gifts await them for the healing of the nations, namely, the gift of truly being seen and loved by God. It’s as if God is saying, as he said amidst the call to Samuel in today’s first reading: “See, I am about to do something in [the church] that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.” (cf. 1 Samuel 3:11)

Thanks be to God. Amen.