January 18, 2009 Message

1 Corinthians 6:11-20; John 1:43-51 “Under the Fig Tree”

In our gospel lesson today, Jesus greets Nathanael when they first meet and says, "There's a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body." That is a real compliment, because Jesus knows Nathanael, even though they have never met before.

But, who is this man Jesus speaks so highly of? Some think he is the disciple referred to in other parts of the Bible as Bartholomew. In his Sermon #90, John Wesley offers this insight about Nathanael. Wesley says, “He is a man of excellent spirit, not quick to believe, and yet open to conviction and willing to accept the truth wherever he finds it.

First, there is no cunning or sneakiness about him.
• He is authentic and genuine.
• He speaks the truth from the heart.
• He cannot tell a lie.
• He tells nothing but the truth.

The second thing about Nathanael is his sincerity, which leads to wisdom or discretion.
• Nathanael always appears exactly what he is.
• He is not a phony.
• He speaks what is on his mind (or heart). He doesn’t hide anything.
• He speaks like a child with simplicity.

Not only was Nathanael not a hypocrite, evidently Jesus saw in him qualities not found in God's own people. He was open to the truth. He was ready to follow wherever truth might lead him. And most importantly, he was ready to listen, especially when he asks Jesus, “Where did you get to know me?” His question confirmed Jesus’ assessment of him was right, but how did this Nazarene know? Somehow Jesus had read his heart, but where could it have been? Nathanael had a feeling that this was going to be an important moment in his life.

Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

“Under the fig tree?” Nathanael thought to himself.

Perhaps the kind of person Nathanael was had something to do with his time under a fig tree. Micah 4:3-4 and Zechariah 3:10 suggests that "under a fig tree" may be a place of contemplation. Maybe Nathanael was a "thinker," who would question and contemplate everything until he was sure of its truthfulness.

Traditionally, rabbis studied the Law under a fig tree. It was a place a person searching for the truth would go. Someone might also go there for prayer and meditation, for guidance or to be given a sign. Perhaps that is why Nathanael was under the fig tree. And now he has the sign he had asked for in Jesus’ answer, “I saw it all,” Jesus said, your anxieties, your pleadings and your hopes – under the fig tree."

Jesus’ had gotten his attention with the remark about his character, but his answer to Nathanael’s question – that’s what ‘sealed the deal.’ Nathanael had been ‘seen’ by this man he had never met – under a fig tree. And having been seen, he believed.

Maybe we all need more fig trees – at least in a figurative sense – quiet places where we can think. We all need places we can go to be alone, to get away, and just slow down; even places and times away from work and our daily routine, where we can sit and reflect or pray about our hopes and longings. At any rate Nathanael must have had such a place “under the fig tree” which no one could know about but himself and...

That is when Nathanael realized who Jesus was – the One other than himself who was there; the One who knows everything, even the personal details of a person’s life. It was at that moment Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Nathanael came face to face with the truth and he spoke what was on his heart.

Cynthia Anderson, associate pastor of Barrington UMC, Barrington, Illinois, in her reflection of today’s text, writes, “We see because we have been seen, and love because we have been loved.” I like that. Because, isn’t this really how it happens - our epiphany? It isn’t anything Phillip has said that convinces Nathanael. And it isn’t anything anyone has told us about Christ that convinces us. Only after Nathanael comes into Jesus’ presence does he recognize who Jesus is. And that is how it is with us as well. When the light penetrates the darkness, he understands. It is when he realizes he has been seen and is known by this man, that Nathanael ‘gets it’ and his life is forever changed.

Rev Anderson goes on to say, “The story shifts our focus away from our efforts to get others to see Jesus and reminds us that we are able to see only because God has first revealed God’s self to us.” In Jesus we can trust God sees us.

The apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians that, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are not what we used to be.” He points out to his readers, “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” This is something God does. Paul says, “you were bought with a price,” and I might add, by a God who has seen you, and knows all about you.

Like Phillip, we can invite others to come and see, and walk with them to Jesus – and trust the light to penetrate the darkness. Our calling is to bear witness with grace and obedience to the light that shines in our lives through the Son of God. The ability of others to see the light does not rest solely on our powers of persuasion or our ability to tell others who Jesus is. The ability to see Jesus comes as a gift from God through the graceful and mysterious movements of the Holy Spirit. We can take others by the hand, share our excitement with them and invite them by the faithful living of our lives to come and glimpse what we have seen – but we cannot make them see.

We can point to the light and then trust that the light shines and the darkness will not overcome it.




Commentary on the Whole Bible (Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871).
“Sermon 90” (John Wesley).
Cynthia Anderson, Living by the Word, Christian Century, Jan 11, 2009.