Friday in the Christmas Season, January 5, 2024

John 1, 43-51

Jesus decided to go to Galilee, and he found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

“Jesus decided to go to Galilee.”  St. John does not tell us whether and, Andrew, and Andrew’s brother Simon went with Jesus from the Jordan to Galilee.  It is an open question because to this point, Jesus had not called them to follow him.  However, since they are strongly attracted to him already, it makes sense that they did.  John also does not tell us why the Lord went to Galilee.  It was not as if he were returning to Nazareth.  He turns, rather, towards the Sea of Galilee and the town of Bethsaida, where Andrew and Simon came from originally.  It is possible that Philip also made his living fishing in the Sea and that he sometimes followed John the Baptist.  Andrew, Simon, and John could have known Philip already and knew that he would like to meet Jesus too.  Indeed, Philip was as affected by the Lord’s presence and words that he ran off to tell his friend Nathanael (Bartholomew) about him.  If Philip was a fisherman, then perhaps Nathanael made his living that way as well and Philip knew him that way.  John does name Nathanael in John 21, 2, as joining Peter in fishing on the Sea of Galilee.  “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”  Nathaniel’s remark shows the contempt even fellow Galileans felt for the town where the Son of God had chosen to live for thirty years, showing that there was nothing he would not do to save us.

“Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” The Lord’s words ring with irony because the Patriarch Jacob, named Israel by an angel, was very much duplicitous in obtaining the blessing of his father over his brother Esau, to whom Isaac, their father, wished to give it.  The people Israel had a long history of duplicitous behavior towards God.  The meaning of the irony is not clear, however.  Had the Lord seen Nathanael engaged in some questionable practice under the fig tree?  That might explain Nathanael’s strong reaction: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”. We can compare this to Thomas’s exclamation after seeing the Risen Lord after he had refused to believe the other Apostles: “My Lord and my God!”

“Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  Nathanael would see this at the end of the world, when Jesus comes to judge the good and the wicked.  But he would also see this through faith when his initial belief became confirmed and he knew with all his heart that Jesus was the Son of God.