Sunday, April 1, 2012

393

The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me."

Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathaniel and told 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."

"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" asked Nathaniel.

"Come and see," said Philip. 

When Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."

"How do you know me?" Nathaniel asked. 

Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."

Then Nathaniel declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."

Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

John 1:43-41

I'm going to try and only write one more thing about this passage. Jesus says, "You shall see greater things than that..." Jesus looks at this man and Jesus, with his God eyes, can see the adventure he is about to take him on. 

And think about the adventure for one minute. Nathaniel's going to hold bread that gets multiplied a thousand times! Nathaniel is going to witness a dead child come back to life. He is going to see the blind see, the dead hear, the broken healed. He's going to perform miracles himself. Nathaniel's going to witness his mentor pursue his Father with reckless abandon. He's going to watch Jesus pray. It's going to impact him so much, he's going to doubt that he's ever prayed before. But he is not ashamed. He is changed. He learns to pray. He learns to walk as Jesus walked. All the way to his own sacrificial death. Nathaniel, you haven't seen anything yet. And Jesus knows - and he says to him - what do you say? Ready or not - here we go!


No comments:

Post a Comment