I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to be one-upped by anyone. Imagine Nathanael’s surprise as Jesus describes him to a tee before any introductions have even taken place. He knows what he told Phillip, his friend. But Phillip knows him already, so there was no need to mask his disdain for Nazarenes or his utter nonchalance regarding Phillip’s “discovery.” But Jesus? He had never seen the man, and certainly the man did not know him well enough to dare describe him accurately.
Perhaps trying to mask his surprise he asks, “How do you know me?” It is as if he asked, “We’ve never even met!” In fact, “How dare you pretend to know me and even describe me as if you did?” would have been a reasonable response to the shock of the moment. How typical a response to something we don’t understand. Our minds cannot wrap around an inexplicable event and we begin to throw out objections before we even digest what we have just experienced. Sometimes the appropriate response to the unexplainable is silent awe. Everything cannot be proven in a beaker.
But Jesus does not hold back. He knows what it will take to draw Nathanael
into the fold. It will take more than it
took to draw Andrew and Peter in. It will
take more than was required “to reel in” Phillip. Nathanael requires a club to the head—that’s
what it takes for some of us. He blows him away with something he could not
explain away. There was no way around
this iron-clad miracle. Jesus could have
guessed his response to Phillip, since prejudice against Nazarenes among the
people from Bethsaida was rampant. He
even might have guessed that Nathnael was just standing around when Phillip found
him, since fishermen spend a lot of daytime hours loafing around. But to tell him he not only saw him, but did
so while he was still standing under a fig tree is not a slight of mind
trick. Nathanael is confronted with a
decision. He can throw out some more
objections or denials. Or he can run
away from the moment. Something amazing is
about to happen.
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