Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!

 

 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and 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 of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote -- Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."  And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"  Philip said to him, "Come and see."  Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!"  Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."  Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God!  You are the King of Israel!"  Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe?  You will see greater things than these."  And He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

 

- John 1:43-51 

 

Yesterday we read that on the second day given in John's Gospel, John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold!  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!  This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.'  I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water."  And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.  I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'  And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God."  Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples.  And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!"  The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.  Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, "What do you seek?"  They said to Him, "Rabbi" (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), "where are You staying?"  He said to them, "Come and see."  They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).    One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.  He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated, the Christ).  And he brought Him to Jesus.  Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, "You are Simon the son of Jonah.  You shall be called Cephas" (which is translated, A Stone).

 

  The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and 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 of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote -- Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."  And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"  Philip said to him, "Come and see."  Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!"  My study Bible explains that no deceit means both having a pure heart and also being straightforward with others.

 

Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."  Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God!  You are the King of Israel!"  Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe?  You will see greater things than these."  My study Bible says that what exactly occurred under the fig tree is something we don't really know, as it's not stated in the Gospel. It cites St. John Chrysostom, who teaches that this was the meeting place of Philip and Nathanael, and that Jesus was praising Nathanael for being so diligent and careful in his search for the Messiah.  Christ's foreknowledge and His ability to see into Nathanael's heart stir him to this confession of faith ("Rabbi, You are the Son of God!  You are the King of Israel!").

 

And He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."   The title Son of Man is a title of the Messiah that had a level of mystery in its meaning, my study Bible explains.  It indicated a man of heavenly origin who would usher in the Kingdom of God (Daniel 7:13-14).  In an Old Testament proverb, Jacob dreamed of a ladder which connected earth to heaven, upon which angels of God were ascending and descending (Genesis 28:12-15).  Jesus is the "ladder" who unites earth to heaven, and therefore He is this Son of Man.  

 

In today's reading we are given the fourth day in John's Gospel, in this first week of Jesus' ministry which begins John's Gospel.  Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael, who see Christ as the true Light, the One who was revealed in the Old Testament, a "lesser" light as it would be fulfilled in Him.   My study Bible says that this parallels the establishment of the lesser and greater lights governing the night and the day respectively on the fourth day in Genesis 1:14-19.  When Jesus tells Nathanael, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man," He is making a clear reference to the Old Testament story cited by my study Bible, that of Jacob and the ladder to heaven, and hence to Christ's fulfillment of "the Law and the Prophets" as Jesus says of Himself in Matthew 5:17:  "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."  Once again, as in the readings of the past two days, we are reminded that Christ is the heart-knower, the revealer of truth about a person.  He says of Nathanael (who will also be known as Bartholomew), "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!"   Without having to be present to overhear the conversation between Philip and Nathanael, Jesus peers into his heart, discerning a quality He seeks in a disciple, and praises Nathanael for having, in the words of my study Bible, a heart that is both pure and a character that is straightforward with others.  This also tells us something about Jesus, for one could hardly imagine a "great man" of the first century as one humble enough to praise someone for asking, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?", Jesus' hometown.  A Caesar or Herod could likely have had him executed on the spot for what would be perceived as an insult.  Caesar, worshiped as a god, quite literally bragged about the millions killed in pursuit of the expansion of the empire.   But Jesus, the Son of Man, and true Son of God, is nothing like this.  He sees through all things to recognize what He wants in a chosen disciple:  Nathanael is an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.  This is high praise, a reward for his straightforwardness.  If we think about what a pure heart is, we must understand Jesus' words of praise in the phrase "no deceit."  For we are also capable of fooling ourselves so often with our own notions about ourselves that we hold dear to heart.  In what is yet another example of this immediate heart-to-heart relation in which Christ engages (such as when He named Simon Cephas, or Peter, meaning Stone, in yesterday's reading), we must understand Christ's praise for  a heart that is pure, which holds no deceit either for himself or for others.  Purity is the condition of being of the same substance on the inside as on the outside, thoroughly without affliction or particle of flaw, and it is this condition of our hearts to which we all aspire as disciples of Christ.  What would it mean to have no deceit within us -- no favorite little lie about ourselves, no fudging our own characteristics that we'd do better to correct, and nothing getting in the way of our perception of others as well?  Nathanael's seemingly insulting question reveals something good about him, something Jesus praises, for it is an honest question based on the assumption and understanding that the Scriptures reveal no great prophecy of the Messiah or other prophet arising from Nazareth, as indeed Nathanael does not know that Jesus' birthplace is Bethlehem, the place from which the Messiah was prophesied to be born.  Nathanael's question is as straightforward as is Mary's to Gabriel, when she questions the prophecy she's been given that she will bear a Son, by saying, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" (see Luke 1:26-38).   What we are given in the story of Nathanael here is an affirmation that our faith is a search for truth.  It is quite often presented to us that faith is the stuff of sheer imagination or even classified as "fairy tales" or some other distortion, but the truth is quite the opposite.  Faith is a deep search for truth and real meaning, and it is not satisfied with partial answers or half-truths (those are called "heresies" in Christian tradition).  Its bedrock is a heart that is pure in this sense of Nathanael's straightforward and truthful nature, one in which there is no deceit, no tolerance for lies of any kind, and this is consistently affirmed in the Gospels and the teachings of Jesus.  It is, indeed, Jesus who teaches us that "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8).  This is the foundational basis for the practice of self-examination and the traditions of monasticism, of contemplative prayer traditions such as the Jesus Prayer and its concurrent practices of confession -- so that we are aware of our own flaws, the things we nurture that aren't really true or good for us, and the things we need to change through repentance.     It is why our tradition prizes humility, so that we are able to see clearly, without deceit.   All of these are things that get in the way of truth and its pursuit, which is the bedrock of faith.   It is in John's Gospel that Jesus will teach, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).  Let us always continue to bear its significance in mind.