In this season of the Epiphany we turn attention to those notable events of the ministry of Jesus which reveal the mystery of his person: his baptism in the river Jordan, his proclamation of the nearness of God’s reign, the authoritative call to discipleship, healings of the broken in mind and body putting the Evil One and his minions to flight, the parables he told of God’s amazing mercy, the pronouncement of the double love commandment demonstrated then – of all things!-- in dining with tax collectors and sinners as in a wedding feast, all of this culminating in the Transfiguration when the glory of Jesus as the Son of God is revealed to Peter, James and John.
We have a big advantage in all this. Unlike the characters inside the gospel story, we already know the secret of this ministry of love. Unlike Phillip and Andrew and Peter and Nathaniel, we already know the mystery of the man Jesus, this son of Joseph from Nazareth. The Gospel of John has already told us in its first verses that what we are about to witness as the narrative unfolds. We will see the eternal Word of the Father become flesh, that is, being spoken here and now into our time and space by the Gospel’s living color portrait, so to speak, of this man on a mission. Jesus from dusty, insignificant Nazareth, known by his workingman father’s name, Joseph, this rare man of mercy among us calculating men and women, is shown to us the very Son of God. The fourth evangelist tells us at the end of his gospel that he has recorded all these stories about Jesus in order that we may believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that believing, we too may have life in his name. ERGO, Come and see! Indeed, let’s look and see!
Notice first today how Jesus is the One who takes the initiative. He comes into Phillip’s life unexpected as also into ours, whether we are looking for him or not, and with authority commands, You! Follow me! You! Pay attention! Later in the Gospel of John, Jesus will therefore remind these very disciples, “You did not chose me, I chose you.” And this holds true for all believers. In the preaching of the gospel, the risen Jesus Christ is the One who is coming into our lives, disruptively, calling us out by name also to arise and follow him. He takes the initiative. He calls with authority. He commands our attention, our allegience, our faith. He seeks and finds us.
Notice next how we who are called characteristically misunderstand and get it backwards from the start. We just heard that it is Jesus who seeks and finds. But what does Phillip say to Nathaniel? Does he say, I was lost but now am found? I blind but now I see? No, he says to Nathaniel, We have found him of whom Moses prophesied. We have found him, we have done it! Our insight, not God’s revelation! But of course such a merely human claim is eminently debatable. Nathaniel, with good cause, replies by challenging the claim, I’m from Missouri, he says. Show me! Skeptically he asks, Can anything good come out of nowheresville Nazareth? From the son of a rude workingman, the guy Joseph whom we know? What a silly idea! To his credit Phillip does not now argue. Challenged, he realizes that his merely human claim avails nothing. If he is really speaking about the One sent from God, the Messiah who takes the initiative and establishes his own divine claim on us as a true and merciful Lord taking hold of his own lost and perishing creature, he cannot argue anyone to faith, let alone on his own authority just say it is so. He can only bear witness and invite. So Phillip simply replies, Come and see!
Come and see! Come to think of it, isn’t that why we don’t get bored with the old, old story which remains ever good and ever new? Come and see Sunday on Sunday with your mind’s eye the One whom we get to know in these down to earth stories of a life of loving service and final sacrifice for one and all on the cross – just as if this One were not dead, but alive and active, just as if the son of Joseph from Nazareth from long ago were indeed the Son of the living God, alive, active, present! Indeed! Therefore, even today: Come and see – him! Come and discover what he is doing! Don’t wonder, as the well-meaning slogan has it, what Jesus would do. No, come see what Jesus is doing! Come and see and hear him! So that we become again as little children, attentive like the child Samuel of old, with open mind and heart, saying: Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.
So it happens in our story today, which now shifts focus from Phillip to Nathaniel. Nathaniel indeed comes to see Jesus who greets him with a statement that utterly disarms him. He addresses Nathaniel as a genuine, true Israelite, without guile, that means, not a deceiver or a cheat. This puzzling, surprising greeting indicates that here too Jesus takes the initiative, revealing Nathaniel. Thus it elicits from Nathaniel in turn the astonished response, How do you know me? When Jesus replies in the apparently irrelevant way, I saw you under the fig tree, Nathaniel the seeker and inquirer suddenly turns into an extravagant confessor, heaping praise and acclamation that seem all out of proportion: Rabbi you are the Son of God, the king of Israel! What’s going on here? How does this instantaneous conversion of Nathaniel come about?
We have to recall the Old Testament the story of the patriarch Jacob to understand. Jacob, you may recall, was a rascal and cheat, full of guile, whom God nevertheless chose, blessed and in the long course of his life finally transformed to be given a new name, Israel. Jacob fled away, having stolen his brother Esau’s paternal blessing by deceiving his sick, blind, bedridden father Isaac. When he fell asleep exhausted from the flight, he had a dream of the ladder to heaven, where the angels ascend and descend. There again, later, after many years, returning to make peace with brother Esau whom he had defrauded, Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord all night till dawn. He would not let go until he was blessed. That wrestling match is the origin of the name, Israel – a new, second name given to Jacob; it means, the one who strove with God, who sought and fought in faith for God’s promised blessing in spite of his sins. Jacob full of guile and deceit is therefore renamed Israel, man of faith who holds onto God’s promise of blessing, not on the basis of his own insight or righteousness, let alone his conniving, but purely on the basis of God’s gracious choice and call. As Luther would’ve put it, in Jacob’s all night wrestling match Jacob was “rubbing God’s ears in his promises.” Thus in being renamed Israel, Jacob strove with God and prevailed. The self-reliant way of guile, deceit and trickery in the process was washed out of him.
This great narrative of Jacob the cheat turned into Israel, man of embattled faith, is in the background of Jesus’ greeting to Nathaniel. He calls Nathaniel a genuine, true Israelite, one who strives with God for his promised blessing, but, unlike the old Jacob, one in whom there is no guile, no deceitfulness or conniving. Even though he is skeptical that the Messiah comes from Nazareth, even though he does not simply accept Phillip’s human claim to have found him, he is willing to come and see because, as a sincere Israelite, he seeks in faith the promised blessing of God. He is an authentic seeker; although he knows not whom or what he seeks, he is looking for blessing of life that comes from God. He is not a scoundrel, a cheat, a deceiver, a phony, like the old Jacob who uses God for his own sinful purposes, who loves the Giver only for the sake of the gifts. He is really seeking God and his kingdom and righteousness; he is the true Israel. Nathaniel is astonished at Jesus’ greeting because it penetrates to this deepest truth about himself. Nathaniel at once realizes that through all his seeking for life and blessing, he has been drawn to this moment of truth, of revelation, of encounter with Jesus.
Jesus concludes the episode by telling Nathaniel that he will yet see “greater things,” just like the patriarch Jacob in his dream long ago saw the heavens opened and the angels ascending and descending. But this time not on a upward ladder but upon this Son of Man, this Jesus from Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Jesus in person comes as the stairway to heaven, the gateway to heaven, the threshold of heaven, and Nathaniel the seeker who has come to see Jesus will henceforth see indeed that in Jesus God opens wide the door to heaven, the door to life, true life, abundant life, eternal life. Henceforth he knows, as the apostle Paul teaches us today, that he is no longer his own, but has been bought with a price that he may glorify God in the body
Dear Christian friends, the gospel story is always old because it is always about this same old Jesus from Nazareth and what he once and uniquely did for us all. But it is always new, because it is also about each and every Phillip into whose life Jesus comes and commands: Follow me! Each and every Phillip who bears witness and invites: Come with me to see Jesus! It is about each and every Nathaniel and Jacob-turned-to Israel; the old, old story is just as much about our being drawn to Jesus, our coming to see but therewith being discovered and known, welcomed and converted, until we to exclaim and proclaim him who has sought and found us and led us through the wide open door of mercy into the presence of the God of love. The old, old story of Jesus and his love is always new because the gift of eternal life and blessing of God is simply lavished there upon us and upon all who come and see. This is what Jesus is doing today and every day when his people gather around his Word, blessed Epiphany! To God all the glory for all his rich mercy in Christ. Amen.