Second Sunday after the Epiphany (2024)

GOAL— I want my hearers to heed the LORD’s call which He provides through the Word and Sacraments.

We try to hide our faults and failures from others. We want people to see us at our best. Perhaps we assume that if people knew what we were really like, they would want nothing to do with us. There’s no hiding from God; He is all-seeing and all-knowing. Christ Jesus has witnessed our very worst, even the sins that only occurred in our heads. The psalmist says,

Psalm 139:2–3 NASB 2020

2 You know when I sit down and when I get up; You understand my thought from far away. 3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.

Yet even though Jesus knows all our faults and failures, he wants to be the center of our lives. So, he calls us to follow him. He wants us to be with him, secure in his love of forgiveness.

Here is this week’s Epiphany: “Jesus shows kindness when he calls us to discipleship.” He even shows kindness by giving us the ability to answer that call, so that we might always be near him and his blessing. This ability is the Stairway to Heaven.

Remember last week when Jesus was baptized, beginning His ministry, the heavens were torn open making a way to God’s kingdom that was once closed because of our sin. The stairway to heaven that Jesus provides is the means by which God’s children now have access to him.

So this morning we are going to ponder this and our Lord’s call to Philip and Nathanael. We will begin to see how this stairway to heaven enables us to be—

Found by the Lord.

It was with firm resolve (ēthelēsen) that Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He had work to do, and part of that work was to find Philip and to confront him with the Gospel imperative “Follow Me.” The Lord took the initiative. He found Philip. It is important to note that Christ Jesus — the gospel — and the gospel messengers keep finding men.

It will serve us well for us to remember from where the initiative comes in matters of Christian faith. The sinful flesh and Satan himself try and convince us that we are the initiators of our faith, that we find Christ. That we have decided to follow Jesus. But in reality, it is just the opposite in the kingdom of God. The Lord finds us.

Once the Lord has entered the heart, as St. Paul reminds us: “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” ( Romans 10:17), there is a desire to serve Christ in His finding mission.

Note that Philip, once he had been found himself, proceeded to find Nathanael and was bold to enter with the Word of God that Jesus is the one whom Moses and the prophets wrote and spoke about.

The message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a finding message, not one to be fenced in.

Once we are found by the Lord we discover that we are also

Known by the Lord.

Philip goes to Nathanael, but Nathanael needed more than a little telling. Some coaxing was also necessary, and in that respect he is to be commended, for his doubts seemed to rest on his inability to relate Nazareth to Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. Holy Scripture was not unknown to Nathanael. In fact, Philip's opening comment has a significant word order in the Greek text.

In the Greek text the emphatic first position in the sentence suggest that both Nathanael and Philip had taken careful note of Messianic prophecy. This is as it should be, for Jesus once asserted that Holy Scriptures deserve to be searched because they testify of Him.

Although somewhat skeptical, Nathanael did not postpone further investigation of matters important to faith. In connection with that inquiry he discovered in a special way that the sanctuary of his heart had already been invaded. Again, “faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ.”

Jesus said, “Here is truly and Israelite, in whom there is no deceit!” What praise from the Master! The sincerity, the genuineness of Nathanael's hope in the Lord was attested to by the Son of God! We are starting to see the blessings of this stairway to heaven.

There was still more. The knowledge of the fig tree incident was proof to Nathanael that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God and the promised King of Israel. Now Known by the Lord, Nathanael was now bound to Jesus, and in due time he would find out how Nazareth and the fact that Jesus was called Joseph's son fit into the picture of our Lord's life.

You and I, too, are known by the Lord in such an intimate way that Christ Jesus even knows your name.

Now that we realize that we are known by the Lord we are receptive to being—

Informed by the Lord.

The apostle Peter once urged his readers (2 Peter 3:18) to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. On the day Jesus persuaded Nathanael, our Lord also informed His new disciple that they would see and learn many more things about the man from Nazareth.

The Lord informed Nathanael and those with him about future events in God's plan of salvation. The imagery is drawn from Jacob’s vision of a ladder between heaven and earth in Genesis 28. In this case and in the gospel reading this morning, communion between heaven and earth open. This is the Stairway to Heaven that our Lord provides.

This Stairway to Heaven is in the Word and Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. As noted earlier, “Faith come from hearing the Word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). The Holy Spirit working through the Word calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps us in the one true faith. And God does this through the Word of God that is received into our ears.

Then Jesus says to you, “Take, eat; this is my body. . . . Drink of it [the cup], all of you, for this is my blood of the New Covenant” (Mt 26:26–28 ESV). With your mouth you eat and drink the body and blood of the greatest gift of God for the “remission of sins” (Mt 26:28 KJV).

Unfortunately, there are those who complain about these gifts: it is it is not what you want; it’s not necessary or important to them—they don’t need it. Or, they have other things that more important to them that they want to do. Then others outright reject the promise attached to these gifts.

Remember the words of Jesus to Nathanael, “You will see greater things than these” (Jn 1:50). Jesus foresaw Nathanael and provided a multitude of gifts through miracles in His earthly ministry; you and I are to expect more, much more. You and I get to receive the greatest gift: Jesus in his Word and Sacrament. I call it the greatest gift because through it God forgives us our sin.

This is the Stairway to Heaven that God provides, and In spite of our sin God makes it available each and every Sunday. From this lectern you hear the Word of the Lord and respond with “Thanks be to God!” And upon the altar — hidden beneath the elements of bread and wine — is Jesus, giving Himself to you, for the forgiveness of your sins. An uninterrupted communion between heaven and earth— the Stairway to heaven — is now here.

Through Him communion with heaven has been restored, because in Christ there is forgiveness of sin. Nathanael was assured that he would be a witness of more details in this restoration plan of God. The Lord opens the doors of His own heart to those whom He finds.

In no way would we wish to keep our hearts closed to Him who knocks at the door, which is why we the Church gather every week.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.