Daily Devotional • March 8
A Reading from John 1:43-51
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49 Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Meditation
Today, Jesus acquires two new followers in Philip and Nathanael. Jesus himself finds Philip, and then Philip brings Nathanael to Jesus. Nathanael is skeptical at first, especially upon hearing Jesus is from Nazareth, but Philip invites him as Jesus has invited his disciples to “Come and see.”
Something of a miracle takes place when Jesus encounters Nathanael. Before Nathanael speaks a word, Jesus greets him in a way that sees straight into Nathanael’s heart. Nathanael eagerly confesses, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
This anecdote is another insight into the life of discipleship. To know Jesus is first to be known by him, and the way we come to know him is by discovering how he knows us. When Jesus meets us where we are, we come to understand his character.
This encounter is only the beginning for Nathanael. Jesus then promises that Nathanael and Philip “will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man,” evoking the language of Genesis 28, in which Jacob dreams of “a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” (28:12).
We, like Nathanael, have perhaps encountered this God who knows us, and yet we await a fuller meeting. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, “For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
When I feel uncertain in my faith, in my relationship with God, my instinct is to seize control, to try to get a hold of what I know about God, attacking him like an intellectual problem rather than approaching him as someone with whom I’m in relationship. Jesus’s encounter with Nathanael teaches us that the way into deeper knowledge of and relationship with God is precisely through trusting and enjoying his knowledge of us. While we sit in the tension of awaiting the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises, may we turn to God and hear what he has to say about how he knows and cares for us.
Laura Howard is a writer from Dallas, TX, now based in Wheaton, IL, where she works in Student Wellness at her alma mater, Wheaton College. Laura’s portfolio of writing, teaching, and artwork can be found at letmebeheavy.substack.com.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Episcopal Diocese of Nevada
The Diocese of Malaita – The Anglican Church of Melanesia
