St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
Year B ▪ January 17, 2021
John 1:43-51
Our gospel passage in the first chapter of John this morning starts on the day after Jesus’ first disciples, Andrew and Simon Peter, were called. On this day, Jesus called another disciple, Philip, and decided to journey to Galilee. In his enthusiasm to share the good news that Jesus, the fulfillment of scripture, had been found, and was with them, Philip went to Nathanael. There is a lot of emphasis on witnessing.
The start to this gospel passage reminds me of the famous 1980’s Faberge shampoo commercial that captured the basics of evangelism. The iconic actress, Heather Locklear, holds up the bottle of shampoo and says, “It was so good, I told two friends about it, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on and so on.” Telling those potential customers about the product—through the magic of television—makes the “so on, and so on and so on,” seem effortless without the complexities of possible human reactions to the product. A television commercial can certainly be an efficient tool for evangelizing the masses for a commodity—that’s how the commercial became famous. But evangelism, as one vehicle by which we share the good news of God in Christ with others, is best done when done with a personal touch.
The text does not provide any details about Nathanael—specifically, what he was doing or where he was when the newly-called disciple Philip came to him. Philip personally engaged Nathanael in order to bring him to Jesus, but was met with resistance—not something that would have happened to Heather Locklear.
What we know about Nathanael, we know from his reaction to Philip’s declaration about the long-awaited Messiah who hailed from Nazareth. Nathanael’s response was not at all like the shampoo commercial; it was a mixture of skepticism, and perhaps dry humor, captured in his question to Philip, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (v. 46). Nathanael apparently had a bone to pick with the town or had adopted negative perceptions and prejudices about Nazareth and its people from others. We are neither told about Nazareth’s reputation nor Nathanael’s connection to Jesus’ hometown in this passage.
Instead of completely blowing off Philip’s invitation to “come and see” Jesus, the one who was the fulfillment of scripture, Nathanael, perhaps out of curiosity, went to Jesus. And when he did, Jesus met Nathanael, and greeted him with, of all things, a character assessment. He was an Israelite absent of deceit. Imagine walking up to a stranger who tells you what kind of person you are without ever having previously met you or spoken with you. Nathanael’s reaction was not unlike what any of us might say to a stranger, “How do you know me?” or “Have we met?”
Jesus revealed to Nathanael that he had seen him under the fig tree, which we might assume took place even before Philip invited him to come and see Jesus for himself. Nevertheless, we know by Nathanael’s reaction that he had not previously seen Jesus. With his disclosure about Nathanael, Jesus’ supernatural knowledge was revealed, and Nathanael experienced an epiphany. This epiphany prompted Nathanael’s confession that Jesus was the Son of God and the King of Israel (v. 49).
Recall that Philip had initially identified Jesus, as son of Joseph from Nazareth, a common way to identify persons using the name of their father. Nathanael’s encounter with Jesus resulted in a confession that revealed the extraordinary fullness of Jesus’ identity as Son of God. After that, Nathanael could have answered his own question, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” with “Oh, you better believe it!”
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” In my research, one commentator offered that the name of the town itself may unlock a deeper meaning and serve to connect the dots for us, the readers of scripture. The word netzer in Hebrew is “branch”—the spelling of which is the same as Nazareth. Focusing on Nazareth as “branch,” calls to mind the prophet Jeremiah’s prophecy about the righteous branch of David who would reign as king to execute justice and righteousness in the land (Jer 23:5). Recall, also, that Joseph’s decision to marry the mother of Jesus, Mary, grafted Jesus into the genealogical family tree, so to speak, of King David. Jesus, the Nazarene, is the righteous branch. And, indeed someone very good—someone of the highest good—came out of Nazareth.
Before his encounter with Jesus, Nathanael was certainly prejudiced about Nazareth, and expected nothing good to come out of it—including good people. After his encounter with the one who was truly human, truly divine, he was forced to abandon his limited understanding in order to absorb the fullness of God’s embodied goodness standing before him. The message to us, as 21st century disciples of Jesus, is to expect good to come from that which we perceive, in our experiences, or in our assumptions, as bad.
To date there have been 396,000 deaths related to the coronavirus. Can anything good come out of the physical, mental and spiritual trauma and ongoing suffering caused by the sickness, death and isolation of this lasting and raging pandemic?
It has been 11 days since the attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. by domestic terrorists, leaving a country paralyzed by fear and plain exhaustion. Can anything good come out of the terror and destruction that, for centuries, have plagued this nation with the sin of disunity rooted in racial inequality and maintained by unjust systems?
Perhaps the good to emerge from the pandemic will be a greater appreciation for God’s gift of human life and the precious interconnection relationships that give life such meaning. Perhaps the good to emerge from man’s inhumanity will be the emergence of a people who, on the other side of the chaos, choose empathy, compassion and love for their neighbors—a reclamation of what Jesus taught by his life’s example about how to be more fully human.
Make no mistake; good will emerge. To believe that good can indeed come from that which is perceived, in our experiences, or in our assumptions, as bad, is rooted in our faith that when the crucified Jesus suffered on the cross and died, death was not the final answer. Something of the highest good came from Jesus’ death—his resurrection! So, be encouraged and hold on. Our hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ will, in the darkest nights of our souls, give us the strength to dig deep for the good even when it is hidden.
On the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a man of God who gave his life to fighting racial injustice so that all might be free of the sin of racism—both the oppressed and the oppressor—a man who is recognized by the Episcopal Church as a martyr (his feast day is April 4th), let us commit to seeking the good in that which we perceive, or assume is bad, because we know that in seeking the good, we will surely find it. That in seeking the good in all things, we will surely find God, the source of all goodness.
Amen.
