NATHANIAL’S FIG TREE
SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE
ON JANUARY 18th, 2009
John 1:49 “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
I’ve always enjoyed this Gospel story because it seems at first sight so funny – that Nathanial would declare that Jesus was the Son of God because Jesus said: “I saw you under the fig tree”! The engagement between Nathanial and Jesus seems rather extraordinary – and there is something extraordinary in this story. It is a very appealing story, because of the humour. To see how extraordinary this story is we need to put it in the context of the whole of the first chapter of Saint John’s.
Saint John’s Gospel is a very theological Gospel. Right from the beginning Saint John wants us to understand the deep meanings of what Jesus said and did, and the significance of who Jesus is. The opening of his Gospel makes this understanding clear: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. There is no nice narrative of the birth of Jesus, like in Matthew and Luke, nor an introduction to the beginning of his ministry, as at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. Saint John’s Gospel is quite different.
The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are a very good way of reading about the life of Jesus and understanding the story. Several decades after they were written Saint John’s Gospel was written perhaps (about the turn of the century) and it was written to give a deeper understanding to the simple story of what Jesus said and did.
Saint John makes this quite clear towards the end, in chapter 20:31: “These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name”.
So here at the beginning Nathanial comes to that understanding of who Jesus is, setting the scene and the tone for the rest of the Gospel of Saint John.
When Jesus says (1:48) that he saw Nathanial under the fig tree, it’s not just an amusing comment – there must be, of course, something deeper. Looking at the whole of chapter 1 in context we see an amazing panorama. It begins with the statement that Jesus is the Word of God. Then we move to John the Baptist appearing, and then baptising Jesus.
Unlike the other Gospels, there is no reference to Jesus going into the wilderness for 40 days. Instead we move to the next day and a wonderful incident in which John Baptist points to Jesus and says to two of the disciples: “Behold the Lamb of God”. We are familiar with these words. They are said at every Mass, when the celebrant holds the consecrated Host and invites us to Communion and says: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him that takest away the sins of the world”.
The intention of these words are the same as the intention of Saint John Baptist – to draw attention to Jesus and who he is. It is extraordinary to say this about the Host – other than the fact that it is Christ himself present in the Sacrament. Of course it requires faith and belief. In the context of Holy Communion the statement makes sense – because the Mass is the memorial of the Cross. Here we celebrate the suffering and death of Jesus, and by that sacrifice he took away the sins of the world, and became the Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world. So in the context of the Eucharist the declaration is logical and understandable. If you don’t believe this, then the words are a nonsense.
And on that day when John Baptist said “Behold the Lamb of God” to the disciples the words also must have been a nonsense, and certainly extraordinary. For the Lamb of God was the Lamb sacrificed for sin every year at the Passover. The first Passover Lamb saved the Israelites from slavery way back all those centuries ago in Egypt. How could this Rabbi, this man that had just been baptised by John Baptist be the Lamb of God? It’s a nonsense.
But not to the 2 disciples. It says that they immediately followed Jesus. They understood what John Baptist was saying. This man was more than just a man……He was to be the Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world. One of those two was Saint Andrew and he went and got his brother, Simon Peter. When he went to get Simon Peter he said “We have found the Messiah”. So already there is a development in their thinking that Jesus is something different, something special – the promised one, the Christ.
Then follows today’s passage from Saint John, the story of Nathanial. Firstly, Jesus calls Philip. Now this is an interesting event because Philip is actually the only one who was called by Jesus. The others all came to Jesus themselves, or were brought to him by someone else – like Saint Andrew brought Saint Peter, and Saint Philip brought Nathanial.
We have jumped from the 1st century to this day and age. For most of us fall into these two categories. Either we were brought to Christ – usually through the Church by our parents. Or we sought him out ourselves – perhaps returning to Church, or perhaps coming to some conclusions about Christ and the Faith.
It is usually through His Church that we are brought to Christ, or bring ourselves to Christ. Sometimes it might be an advertisement or some event that brings us to the Church – and that’s how we come to Christ. There is a newer way, and that is through the internet. I don’t know if George Dreyer regards himself as a 21st century Saint Andrew, but as manager of our parish website he guides a lot of people to All Saints’ through the many people who look at the website. So you see there is another way in which people are brought to Christ.
These things have been on my mind, because as I have been preparing for our Annual Meeting and writing my report, I have been thinking about the growth of our parish, and about how we come to know Christ, and come to belong to the Church. Episcopalians are not evangelists like other churches – we don’t warn people they will go to hell in the hope of filling our pews! Nor do we provide modern music and other entertainment so as to catch the young.
What are we good at? What do we offer?
In the context of today’s Gospel I would like to suggest that what we offer is the fig tree of Nathanial. Nathanial came to declare that Jesus was the Son of God, the King of Israel because Jesus said he saw him under the fig tree. What a strange event. What a strange thing to say. How strange that that would prompt him to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
Have you ever wondered what Nathanial was doing under the fig tree? Was he just sitting there, and Jesus saw him? What was he doing under that fig tree?
I would suggest that, in the context of Saint John’s Gospel, there is a meaning beyond it all. Jesus’ final response to Nathanial gives us a clue.
Jesus says: “You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man”. Just think about that statement. There are some amazing theological terms here in this exchange.
Nathanial says you are Son of God.
Then he says you are the King of Israel – which is a development of who the Son of God is. Then Jesus says you will see the Son of Man.
Three terms which we associate with Jesus in different ways.
How did Nathanial come to understand and see Jesus as “The Son of God, the King of Israel”? What led him to declare Jesus was the Messiah?
As I said, we find a clue in Jesus’ words that Nathanial would see the angels of God, ascending and descending. Just put an image in your mind of the angels of God ascending and descending. Does it sound familiar? Remember Jacobs’ ladder?
In Genesis 28 Jacob saw a ladder up to heaven with angels of God ascending and descending. The same thing. At the end of this vision God then says to Jacob: “I am the Lord”. So Jesus affirms Nathanial’s belief in him as the Lord by promising him the same experience that Jacob had. Being an Israelite in whom there was no guile, he would have understood the image of the angels of God as relating to the ladder of Jacob.
Then three chapters later, in Genesis 31, Jacob wrestles with God – from whence he got the name “Israel”.
What Nathanial was doing under the fig tree was wrestling with God. You see how it all fits in? And Jesus knew that. Perhaps Nathanial was reading Scriptures, or perhaps he was just praying or meditating, or perhaps, like many of us, he was just wrestling with problems and wondering if God had an answer.
So when Jesus says to Nathanial: “I saw you under the fig tree” – he really means “I saw you wrestling with God”.
Jacob’s wrestling with God resulted in God saying: “I am the Lord”, as the climax of the wrestle. So Nathanial’s wrestling with God resulted in him saying: “You are the Christ, the Lord”. If Nathanial didn’t immediately get it, Jesus’ promise of angels ascending and descending it would certainly have hit him. He would have understood that he was talking about Jacob.
May all who wrestle with God, all who search, receive that same revelation of Jesus Christ as Lord.
And may we experience here in the Eucharist, a ladder to heaven!