David Bahn – Reflections

John 1:43-51

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵Philip 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.” ⁴⁶Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” ⁴⁷Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” ⁴⁸Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” ⁴⁹Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” ⁵⁰Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

My friend Don asked me yesterday about the reading from Samuel in which David brags to God about his righteousness. He claims that his life is pure, and that God must surely regard him in light of his personal righteousness. Don’s thought was that David had sinned plenty; that he was surely not able to claim to be righteous before God. I think I understand another dynamic of his point: we’re all sinners. None of us can claim to be righteous before God.

My friend and Savior Jesus adds to my confusion in this regard. On the one hand Jesus calls his disciples(!) evil. And later in John’s gospel we learn that Jesus refuses to entrust himself to men because he knew what was in men’s hearts (John 2:24-25).

So what’s up with Jesus identifying Nathaniel: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” While I would never disbelieve Jesus, these are challenging words in the face of the rest of Scripture, and Jesus’ own words.

Simply put, however, Jesus is allowing us to aspire to an outward righteousness that would mark us as “without deceit.” For many this is a no-brainer. We all know people who are without guile or deceit, whom we would trust. Thank God for such people!

More important, however, is the larger picture of this event: the one with no guile comes to the Son of God, and Savior of the world. If he needs to do that, so do we.