John 1:47-51, Nathanael Meets Jesus

47 Jesus 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."  49 Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50 Jesus 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."

It started with Andrew going to Jesus, who brought his brother Simon, who Jesus renames Peter, who will become Jesus’ number one in time. Peter and Andrew must have introduced Jesus to Philip, the mild and struggling one, in their hometown of Bethsaida. Philip now brings the guileless and knowledgeable Nathanael to him. Jesus quickly and miraculously captures his attention by sharing a divine insight of the fig tree, bringing him to proclaim Jesus as “the Son of God.”

Do you see how Jesus has reached out to different kinds of people? He is not after one class of people but all kinds of people with different personalities and intellects. After all, it is Jesus who created all these different kinds of people to redeem.

Why does Jesus make the allusion to the angels ascending and descending on Jacob’s ladder (a flight of steps) from Genesis 28? Jesus is telling Nathanael that the meeting point between heaven’s divine salvation and earth’s human needs is met in him. Jesus is the ladder that Jacob saw, and Nathanael will see much more than this. And unlike deceitful Jacob, Nathanael has no deceit! While Jacob struggled with God his entire life, Nathanael comes to faith immediately. He recognizes Jesus, in whom the needs of the world are met as people come to and follow him who truly is the Son of Man.

Take a moment of silence and picture in your mind’s eye Jacob’s ladder with its angels. Then see how the ladder becomes Jesus himself. Give God thanks for his amazing act of salvation in your life and in the life of the world.