Many years ago, our daughter Kelly and I attended the funeral of my sister-in-law’s father. during the service the priest mentioned that he was the great grandfather of George, Charles and Douglas, to which Kelly jokingly said, “who the hell is Charles?” because Charles had always been and continues to this day as Charlie. It’s just a name but those who knew him, knew what to call him.
In today’s reading we have a disciple called Nathanael and I ask “who the hell is Nathanael?”
We know precious little about him including his name. He is believed to have also been called Thaddeus. Some biblical scholars say he was known as Jude or Judas. In john’s gospel he is called Nathanael. It appears we know so little about him we can’t even get his name right.
He is only mentioned twice in the bible. In the reading we heard today and then again in John 21 when he is mentioned as one of the disciples who were fishing when Jesus appeared after the resurrection. That’s it, two fleeting mentions.
Jesus’ disciples are broken up into two groups – those we know something about and those who for 2,000 years have remained anonymous.
In the first group we have Peter the leader of the group and tradition tells us is the first pope; James and John who witnessed the transfiguration of Christ and may have written some of the new testament; Andrew who introduced his brother peter to Jesus; Philip who baptised the Ethiopian official; Matthew the tax collector who gave his name to a gospel; Thomas known down the ages as doubting Thomas and of course judas Iscariot who betrayed Christ.
Then there are the little-known disciples – James, the son of Alpheus; Bartholomew; Simon the Zealot and of course Thaddeus, Jude, Judas, Nathanael or whatever his name was.
The second list of disciples have been ignored and undocumented by the scripture writers, so why does john even bother with the story of how Nathanael met Jesus? Why is it important?
Well briefly, the story in a very few words tells us how someone’s life can be transformed even with a fleeting experience of Jesus.
Nathaneal was Philip’s friend and Philip had found a teacher who he was convinced was the one long promised by the Old Testament writers. Philip in his enthusiasm couldn’t wait to introduce Nathanael to Jesus.
But Nathaneal wasn’t so keen. Nathanael displayed his shallow bigotry and prejudice by telling Philip “What good can come from Nazareth?”
“What good can come from Nazareth?” sight unseen, Nathanael has labelled Jesus as worthless and not possible of being the person Philip has built him up to be.
How often does our prejudice stop us from seeing the truth? How easy is it to fall back into comfortable old habits without reflection or thought? How sad for us that out prejudgements stop us from new life changing experience?
The late American president John Kennedy once said “”Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” And it occurs to me that is where Nathanael was. He was prepared to reject Christ based on his ill-considered opinion that nothing good could come from Nazareth before the discomfort of thought could change his mind.
Well thankfully for Nathanael the story doesn’t end there, and he was given the opportunity to change his mind. But unfortunately for many it does end there because they are unwilling to consider that the way of Christ may open their lives to possibilities they never even imagined. They never even open the possibility of exposing themselves to the discomfort of thought.
But in this story, there is a hero. Philip will not be put off by his friend’s unpleasantness. I wish we could all say that for all too often we walk away at the first sign of resistance. But Philip knows what he has seen, and he wants his friend to see it too. Philip shows the ultimate trait of discipleship – he perseveres.
He calmly says “come and see” and this simple and gentle invitation opens the way for Nathanael to meet Jesus and to immediately understand what Philip was talking about.
In my view in the gospels there are three great declarations about Christ.
The first is by peter when he said ““You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
The second is by Thomas when he proclaimed “my lord and my god “.
The third is by Nathaneal ““Rabbi, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!”
Peter came to his realisation after being close to Christ during his ministry, witnessing the transfiguration and being a leader of the disciples.
Thomas came to his realisation after Jesus showed him his wounds after his crucifixion.
Nathaneal on the other hand came to his realisation by simply meeting Jesus.
Here is the strength of this story. Nathanael who the gospels couldn’t even get his name right and who was amongst the most undistinguished of disciples was aware of who Christ was from the moment he met him.
He overcame his prejudices and realised in an instant exactly what good could come out of Nazareth. May we all be able to do the same. Amen
Featured image sourced from Pexels.