Continuing our journey through the gospel of John
43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida.45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote–Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”
48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.”51 He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Can anything good come from Nazareth? Obviously Nazareth did not have a very good reputation. It’s uncertain whether it was due to it’s small size or unimportance, poverty or immorality. What it does affirm again, is that God shows up in unlikely places.
In some ways as Jesus makes a positive assessment of Nathanael we should not that Jesus doesn’t dispute Nathanael’s claim. Maybe he’s right, maybe not much good does come from Nazareth, but that doesn’t prevent God himself from showing up and working.
In the same way, think through the hundreds of things, people, places, that we too are critical of. Is it possible that Jesus himself could be there already? Is it possible that if we spend our lives avoiding the small, the weak, the poor, we’ll miss out on even ‘greater things’?
