Jesus
saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom there is no deceit!” John 1: 46
Bartholomew is one of the
disciples appears in all four lists of the twelve disciples of Jesus. There is
no mention of him other than this list. Nathanael is identified as Bartholomew
so that his full name may be Nathanael Bar – Tholami. He is believed to be in
close association with Philip who brought him to Jesus. We see him by the sea
of Tiberias along with other disciples after the resurrection of Jesus.
While Philip introduces Jesus
to him as the one who is in the Law of Moses and the prophets, is the son of
Joseph from Nazareth, Nathanael is not concealing his inner feelings and asks, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”. Nazareth was an insignificant and
ruddy town and also theologically unimportant in Scripture. The prejudice
inside him is unveiled that he is skeptical about the idea of a Messiah from
Nazareth. He accepted the open invitation of his friend Philip, “Come and See
him”, an invitation the church has to place before all. He meets Jesus the
first time while Jesus had seen him before while he was sitting under the fig
tree. He sees us before we see him. As Hagar experience in the desert, He is a
God of seeing. Jesus promises him that he will see heaven opened and angels of
God ascending and descending on the Son of Man in response to his faith
proclamation about Jesus as the Son of God and the King of Israel.
The honesty and transparency of
Nathanael is seen in his first response about Jesus, the mark of real
spirituality. Discipleship is not blind following but asking and questioning to
find out the real. It needs the real confrontation and experience with Jesus. Jesus
always calls us ‘to come and see’.
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