Nathaniel

 

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” says Nathanael in today’s Gospel (John 1.43-51). A very interesting response to two people who announce that they have found the Saviour prophesied in the sacred Scriptures!

This remark about Nazareth suggests an attitude of prejudice against all people from that town, indeed from the area away from the sensible, in-touch part of the nation in which Nat lived. “In touch” because he lived there… And he has his pride in haughtily dismissing the idea that anything meaningful for him could possibly come from such a backwater. Pride and Prejudice, then.

It’s very easy to be uncommitted and questioning, to be cynical about the things we are told. And it’s true that a healthy scepticism is not always a bad thing in a world of conspiracy theories and phishing. We live in an age of cynicism and uncertainty, but what if to find the truth means putting our assumptions and fixed ideas to one side? Nat did respond to the invitation to “Come and See”.

Jesus sees Nat and immediately recognises his integrity and fundamental goodness. Nat is overwhelmed and realises that this person from Nazareth really is something good from an unexpected source. He finds faith, seeing a glory which ends his cynicism.

Jesus also promises that there will be greater things; “heaven opened and angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” It is an image which speaks of finding hope in God, of knowing that the link between this world and the next is there in Jesus. It speaks of transcendence, of a form of life greater than this world has to offer, of fellowship with the Divine, of life in the light of God’s love and salvation.

In this time of lockdown we can become sceptical about the way the situation is being dealt with and about God’s presence when we are faced with this threat to our well-being and life. We should not allow ourselves to have that automatic response which suggests that it is all hopeless: “Can anything good come from…… this?”. We cannot afford to go into a spiritual lockdown. Faith in God means that we are invited to know that God’s presence in our lives and our world brings us into the transcendent, heavenly realm of fellowship, in a community of life and hope.