January 15, 2006 - Year B - Epiphany 2

John 1:43-51

43 The next day, Jesus decided to set off for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." 44 Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found the one that Moses wrote about in the Law, and the prophets as well: he is Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth."

46 Nathanael replied, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, he said of him, "Here comes an Israelite, a true one; there is nothing false in him." 48 Nathanael asked him, "How do you know me?" And Jesus said to him, "Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree and I saw you."

49 Nathanael answered, "Master, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50 But Jesus replied, "You believe because I said: 'I saw you under the fig tree.' But you will see greater things than that.

51 Truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

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Notes from [The Community Christian Bible] 

These two disciples began to live with Jesus. With time, they would discover that he is the Teacher, the Messiah, the Son of God. So, too, with us. We progress in this knowledge of Jesus Christ as we go on our journey through life.

John the Baptist was without jealousy; he had encouraged his disciples to follow Jesus, and later the first two brought others. Likewise, we come to Jesus because of another person who spoke to us of him, or involved us in an apostolic task.

These two disciples recognized Jesus. It would be more exact to say that Jesus recognized those whom the Father had entrusted to him. Thus he recognized Nathanael when he was under the fig tree (v. 48). Among the Jews, this expression referred to a teacher of the Law engaged in teaching religion, since ordinarily they taught under the shade of a tree. In the same way, Jesus recognized Simon whom the Father chose to be the first Rock of the Church (Mt 16:13).

You will see the heavens opened. See Genesis 28:12.

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Comments by Wesley

1. You will see the heavens open. You will see the presence of GOD interacting with humans. You will see. Later this will be put into prayer form, "GOD's presence be on earth as it is in heaven." Still later this will come around in resurrectional and pentecostal scenes. Most lately this is still available to you and to me. In days to come, for those who come later, these will still guide our hope. This image is good for all time in a never-ending story of escaping the Nothing.

2. All too often along the way we back off from this grand vision and settle for little pictures. "Jesus recognized me!" That's all I needed. Now it is time to die before either of us forget this moment. We settle for the backside of GOD as that is all we are good for. We settle for a glorified face to be covered so we see a glow instead of a strobe. There are greater things available, let's not settle.