Reunited

It is easy to miss the significance of a simple event, like seeing someone sit under a tree.

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." - John 1:43-51

When Nathaniel says, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" it sounds prejudicial.  But he is from Bethsaida, a town about twenty miles to the east of Nazareth in Galilee.

Both are cities in the north, cities in the Kingdom of Israel, as opposed to the Kingdom of Judah to the south, where Jerusalem is.

None of the Jews at the time would have expected the Messiah to come from the North, from Israel.  The righteous lived in the south.

So, Nathanael scoffs.  How would anyone believe that the savior who will restore the kingdom, reuniting the lost tribe of Israel with that of Judah would come from such a place as this?

When Philip is called to follow Jesus, he immediately runs to find his brother sitting under a fig tree, a peaceful place, possibly chosen so he could pray in solitude.

Nathanael must have been praying for a sign that the Messiah was coming, which is what John the Baptist had been telling everyone.  

When Jesus tells him he saw him under the tree, Nathanael realizes this is the answer to his prayers, and he believes his brother's claim.

What is so amazing is that this is the sign that the kingdoms will be reunited as one, and while they may have believed that would be an earthly victory, with Jesus sitting on a throne and Rome no longer in authority over them, the victory will be much more amazing than that.

So, this simple introduction says so much more than we may understand at first hearing.

Jesus calls Philip who finds his brother and his brother comes to believe Jesus is the Messiah.

But to a Galilean at the time, this was the father calling the prodigal son home.

More to come...