Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary
This week the lectionary steps aside from Mark to take up John’s story of the gathering of Jesus’ first disciples (John 1:43-51). Preachers will need to get acquainted with the lection’s literary context. The Messianic “secret” is out, so to speak, in John. The opening verses (1:1-18) declare that the eternal Word— the one who “dwelt among us, full of grace and truth”—”was in the beginning with God” and “was God” (1:1-2). He is God’s only Son, making God known to us (1:18). We meet John the Baptist (vv 6-9) who insists he is neither the Messiah nor Elijah, but heralds the arrival of one greater than himself, one on whom the Spirit will descend (vv 32-33). When Jesus himself arrives, John announces him with divine titles, “Lamb of God” (vv 29, 36) and “Son of God” (v 34). It is in this atmosphere, supercharged with messianic expectation, that the gathering of Jesus’ disciples takes place. Reading the full span of this section (vv 29-51) reveals a process far more organic and weblike than that found in Synoptic call narratives.
First, John the Baptist prompts Andrew and another of his disciples to trail Jesus (vv 35-37). They seek Jesus before he seeks them. Spotting them, Jesus invites them to “come and see” where he stays (v 39). Next, Andrew (not Jesus) seeks his brother Peter, announcing “we have found the Messiah!” Perhaps Peter, too, has been afire with messianic expectation. Meanwhile, Jesus seeks and summons Philip in Galilee. (Did Andrew speak of him? They are all from Bethsaida.) Now Philip finds Nathanael, proclaiming, “we [not I!] have found the Messiah,” as if a shared search is over. Discipleship arises from a contagion of longing and joy. Perhaps this is a portrait of John’s church.
Nathanael’s call story includes deep skepticism about Jesus’ origins and a surprising, sudden confession of faith. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” he asks—yet, accepts Philip’s invitation to “come and see.” Jesus calls him “an Israelite without guile,” an inverted allusion to the antitype Jacob, OT master of deception, renamed “Isra-el” by God. How does Jesus know him, Nathanael wonders? Jesus’ reply—”I saw you under the fig tree”—may mean that Jesus indeed “saw” him supernaturally from afar; but Jesus may literally have seen him in such a place while seeking Philip. Ancient traditions suggest that large trees provided shady gathering places for spiritual or philosophical reflection. Or Jesus may be alluding to Zechariah 3:10, which predicts that when Israel’s eschatological restoration begins, Israelites will gather under the fig trees.[1] Whatever the case, Nathanael’s confession–“Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the king of Israel!” (v 49) is startling. He may be echoing John’s acclamation (“Son of God.” v 34). And surely, Messiah is Israel’s king. Nathanael will learn, in time, what these titles portend and what courage following requires.
Jesus’ ministry will evoke dismissive skepticism and worshipful awe, polar opposites of cynical doubt and joyful confession colliding and intensifying all the way to Jerusalem, to the cross, and beyond. (Doubting Thomas, invited by Christ to “come and see” with probing fingers, will fall down to worship his Lord and God.) Might the enigmatic saying of v 51 portray Jesus’ crucifixion? For this is where Nathanael’s following must inevitably lead him. Jesus’ paradoxical kingship, thorn-crowned, will test and terrify these earnest disciples: the king of Israel pinned helpless to the wood, raised up like Jacob/Israel’s ladder to join earth and heaven. “Yes; come and see. Follow me.” All the way to Golgotha, to death. Which is to say: all the way to Life, to that Light no darkness can quench.
[1] See Craig R. Koester, “Messianic Exegesis and the Call of Nathanael (John 1:45-51),” Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 12 no 39 May 1990, p 23-34.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 