Seeing Things With Fresh Eyes

John 1:43-51

John 1:43–51 NRSV

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. 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 about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Intro

We’ve all done this. Make an assumption about a person or a place based on thin knowledge or a preconception. We make snap judgements. We have biases that try as we might, we have a really hard time getting past. So we understand Nathaniel’s question: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

John the evangelist, the writer of this Gospel, is laying the groundwork for who Jesus is during these opening chapters where he is baptized and calls the first disciples. We’ll look, in a moment, at all the names, titles, and symbols that Jesus is described with in this passage, all attempts at making meaning out of the surprising, unexpected arrival of the Messiah in Galilee. People are waking up, slowly, and realizing who is in their midst.

And so, Jesus encounters Nathaniel and Philip. He meets Philip first and it seems Philip is pretty easy to convince to “follow him.” Jesus goes from Nazareth to the city of Galilee and starts calling more followers. Philip comes along and goes with Jesus to help find others. He’s looking for Nathanael, with hopes of showing him what he’s found in meeting Jesus.

I picture this next part of the scene somewhat like this: Philip spots his buddy Nathanael and runs ahead to tell him who he’s met. He’s excited. Wouldn’t you be? Philip realizes that this is the person Andrew and Peter had been talking about just days before — the one they’d met and heard the same words from: “follow me.”

So Philip rushes up to Nathanael to share what he’s found. And Nathanael, we find is skeptical.

For a long time, every time I hear this text, I have gotten the sense that Nathanael is being pejorative with his question about Nazareth. “What? Wait a minute - can anything good come from Nazareth?”

I remember preaching on this text a few years ago and wondering at how Nazareth must have been viewed as backwater, out in the sticks, off the beaten path and, therefore, not worth our attention. Like Nathanael was some kind of snob and was turning up his nose at someone from Nazareth.

What good could come out of Nazareth? Or Edmonds. Or Nooksack. Or North Carolina. Name your place, there’s always someone who judges you for being from there.

But as I studied this passage this week, I realized that this isn’t the full story nor is it the most accurate reading of the text. Perhaps Nathanael is skeptical for a different reason.

Our story goes on and we find that Nathanael is counted as one who knows the Scriptures and has at least a strong level of familiarity with the ways of the Hebrew people. Maybe he’s not looking down on Nazareth.

Get this - Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. So, Nathaniel’s interrogation or skepticism has justification. People were looking for the Messiah to come out of the center of Judah, from Bethlehem at least. As the Holy Family has relocated, Jesus’ rise as son of Joseph makes it confusing as to whether he is the promised one. But then, he and Nathaniel interact and Nathaniel “sees” the truth.

Nathanael knows what he’s looking for, at least in the context of what he understands, and therefore, his question makes sense.

Perhaps Nathanael is more pure of heart than we’ve given him credit for. Perhaps he has wisdom for who the Messiah is meant to be that we need to encounter and pay attention to.

Again, it’s back to those snap judgements. Nathanael judges Nazareth because he doesn’t think that’s where we should be looking for the promised King of the Jews.

Do you have any snap judgements you’re prone to make? Or are you free from such things? Do you see others through eyes of openness, or could it possibly be that you have bias, even unconscious bias, that shapes how you see others?

Let me share something: I was very aware of the snap judgements you all might have about me when I was first called to pastor here at St. James. I felt young, and wondered at how you would perceive my youth. I came here after spending time employed by both of the other Presbyterian churches in town — what good could come from First Pres. or Cordata Pres? I didn’t go to Princeton Theological Seminary for my M. Div., like good Presbyterians are supposed to. What judgements would I face? What bias would exist?

Thankfully, I’ve come to know and love you all and this congregation and I hope, in turn, your judgements and preconceptions about me have come into greater clarity and understanding over these seven years. And I’ve been able to work with and come to understand my own biases in the process. What good could come from Fairhaven? ;)

What good can come out of Nazareth? How is this possible?

The beauty of this passage of Nathanael’s calling is that it gives us a view of someone seeing with fresh eyes, being surprised by God’s revelation as it arrives in a place and person and way that is unexpected.

This is what God invites us to: to be ready to witness God’s movement in our world in people and places and ways we have either written off, hold judgements of, or perhaps have never even considered possible avenues for God’s action.

Jesus calls Philip and Nathaniel. He surprises them that he comes from Nazareth. Can we see? Will we see?

When we wake up or hear the call or witness the Christ, we begin to see the world differently. What once may have been a space for doubt, becomes an invitation to discipleship and following.

Additionally, one of the keys of this text is what it tells us about discipleship and growing in the faith. It’s not really about whether Jesus comes from Nazareth or Bethlehem, it’s about becoming able to see with fresh eyes the way God is presently being revealed to us. If we keep looking only to the one prescribed way that we expect God to show up, we are likely to miss out on the new thing God is doing in and around us. Our knowledge of the Christ unfolds as we grow and develop eyes to see and ears to hear.

And we respond by praising God for revealing Christ to us in these unexpected ways.

It’s also important to note that this passage immediately precedes the Wedding at Cana and Jesus’ first miracle. Things are warming up. We’re getting a taste from John the Evangelist about what kind of Messiah Jesus is. One who arrives to us in unexpected encounters and in the gathering of people from mixed social circles. We must open our eyes to witness God’s presence as it arrives to us in uncommon, unexpected, unfamiliar ways.

My great reassurance with this text is how Jesus regards Nathanael. As Nathanael approaches, Jesus exclaims, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”

Jesus sees this all clearly. He knows Nathanael is a faithful, devoted Jew. Nathanael is questioning Jesus, not because he does not trust him, but perhaps because Nathanael has been paying attention to what has been prophesied and has a firm understanding of what he thinks Christ’s arrival is going to look like. And maybe he’s wrong and maybe that’s ok. Maybe he gets a glimpse of the much larger, wider, grander movement of God by encountering the surprising Christ.

Let me close with a little bit of self-disclosure about how I’ve come to embrace seeing things with fresh eyes.

I’m a born and raised Presbyterian. Many of you know this, that I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and participated in Presbyterian churches all through my childhood to adulthood. Add into this that I grew up in a pretty comfortable, middle-class, suburban white family and culture. This is where I first encountered Jesus, the Christ.

And because of this background, I have had a lot of preconceived notions about what Jesus is like. He’s like me, of course, right? Because of my background, for a long time I took for granted that Christ looks different to other people, that his story and ministry are much bigger than my vantage point.

But thankfully, I’ve encountered the Christ in fresh ways over these last years of ministry, ways that invite me to see Jesus with new eyes. These new eyes, this new sight, it doesn’t change Jesus from being the Messiah. But it does change how I understand him and how he speaks liberation for all humanity.

Back in 2020, I was heartbroken in two major ways — first, I was so sad to see the way people were using the Christian church as a backdrop to political division and hatred. And second, I was shocked and struck by the increasing visibility of violence perpetrated against people of color.

And so, like I do when I get worked up about something, I started to study. I read books about Christian nationalism, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the German church in World War 2. But I also picked up a ton of books, written by people of color, predominiatly black voices, who were exploring the way Christ meets them in their fight for racial justice.

Through seminary, I’d read white Presbyterian, Reformed authors so that I could learn to be a good white, Reformed, Presbyterian pastor. Check!

But in doing so, I’d limited my imagination for how Christ might show up to us.

And thankfully, in exposing myself to voices and thinking from people who don’t look like me or have my same cultural heritage, I began to get a much broader perspective on the way of Jesus. I encountered new eyes to see Jesus.

In my study, I became acquainted with the Black tradition of the Madonna, the mother of God. For marginalized, oppressed minority groups, one of the ways they fixture and encounter Jesus is to envision Christ as looking like and being powerful like them. How many of us grew up with white Jesus? Well, there is a Womanist, Black tradition that also envisions Christ as the Black Madonna, the strong mother who participates in the liberation of humanity, who welcomes her children to sit at her feet and lay down their burdens. Christ is seen in fresh ways, at least to me, through such theological imaginations.

If that doesn’t resonate with you, or if you’d like to learn more, there’s a bunch of books on the cart in the narthex that might help you break out of the frame of understanding and seeing Jesus from one perspective and perhaps invite you to see with fresh eyes.

Another example — how many of us remember that image of Jesus, digitally recreated, with short black hair and dark olive skin, like a man from first century Palestine would hav elooked like, potentially? Remember that? Do you remember how you felt, looking into those eyes? I remember how I did. I was surprised, pleasantly, and felt really drawn to looking at that image again and again. Huh…perhaps I need new eyes to see, new imagination to explore who Jesus might show up to me as today.

I’ll close with this: Where does Jesus show up in your life today? Do you find him in a child’s innocence and wonder? Do you see him in the man curled up on the sidewalk, trying to stay warm on these frigid nights? Is he arriving here, now, in the face of the widow next to you or the newcomer you have yet to say hello to?

May we have fresh eyes to see and may we be profoundly surprised at how Jesus shows up to us today. And, may we trust that we actually can witness Christ, with our own eyes, as we open them to what Christ is doing here and now among us.

Amen.