Jesus knows all about all!

John 1:45-50

45 Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, "We've found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It's Jesus, Joseph's son, the one from Nazareth!" 46 Nathanael said, "Nazareth? You've got to be kidding." But Philip said, "Come, see for yourself." 47 When Jesus saw him coming he said, "There's a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body."48 Nathanael said, "Where did you get that idea? You don't know me. "Jesus answered, "One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree."49 Nathanael exclaimed, "Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!"50 Jesus said, "You've become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven't seen anything yet! 51 Before this is over you're going to see heaven open and God's angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again. "

Food for thought

Can anything good, anything worthwhile come from Nazareth? Nathanael's reaction declares that Nazareth is not the kind of place that anything good was likely to come out of. But Philip is wise. He does not argue. He says simply: "Come and see for yourself!" Why did Phillip not argue back? Because not very many people have ever been argued into faith. Often our arguments do more harm than good. The only way to convince a man of the supremacy of Christ is to confront him with Christ.

Christ knows how to handle each one of us. So Nathanael came; and Jesus could see into his heart. "Here," said Jesus, "is a genuine Israelite, a man in whose heart there is no guile." We all stand naked before Jesus; we cannot hide nor can we deceive him. He knows it all about all of us.

Nathanael was surprised that anyone could give a verdict like that on so short an acquaintance, and he demanded how Jesus could possibly know him. Jesus told him that he had already seen him under the fig-tree. What is the significance of that? To the Jews the fig-tree always stood for peace. Their idea of peace was when a man could be undisturbed under his own vine and his own fig-tree (compare 1Kgs.4:25; Mic.4:4). Further, the fig-tree was leafy and shady and it was the custom to sit and meditate under the roof of its branches. No doubt that was what Nathanael had been doing; and no doubt as he sat under the fig-tree he had prayed for the day when God's Chosen One should come. No doubt he had been meditating on the promises of God. And now he felt that Jesus had seen into the very depths of his heart.

It was not so much that Jesus had seen him under the fig-tree that surprised Nathanael; it was the fact that Jesus had read the thoughts of his inmost heart. Nathanael said to himself: "Here is the man who understands my dreams! Here is the man who knows my prayers! Here is the man who has seen into my most intimate and secret longings, longings which I have never even dared put into words! Here is the man who can translate the inarticulate sigh of my soul! This must be God's promised anointed one and no other."

It may be that Jesus smiled as he quoted the old story of Jacob at Bethel who had seen the golden ladder leading up to heaven (Gen.28:12-13). It was as if Jesus said: "Nathanael, I can do far more than read your heart. I can be for you and for all people the way, the ladder that leads to heaven." It is through Jesus and Jesus alone that the souls of men can mount the ladder which leads to heaven.