John 1:45-46, “Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ ‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?’ Nathanael asked. ‘Come and see,’ said Philip.”
Jesus found Philip, and Philip found Nathanael. Philip had just accepted Christ’s invitation and is itching to share the news that he has found “Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write: Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.” Philip is pointing Nathanael to the Old Testament, the sacred literature; and he is telling Nathanael that Jesus is this mysterious person those ancient passages have been foretelling. Notice Philip doesn’t refer to Jesus as the Messiah, Savior or some other familiar title we may use. He doesn’t really know about Christ’s supernatural birth nor where he was born.
This helps to put in perspective Nathanael’s response, “Nazareth? Can anything good come from there?” Also, Nathanael was from Cana of Galilee, only a few miles from Nazareth. Villages close to each other had bitter feuds and were quite jealous of each other. They relished at the thought of scoffing and taunting each other.
Nathanael is throwing a jab at Nazareth here. And to hear that all of ancient biblical history hung on this one person, a person of a neighboring village that you had conflict with all your life? It would bring out sarcasm or an attitude of prejudice. “That is a strange place for such a person to be born in? Galilee was the despised part of Palestine, and Nazareth obviously was a proverbially despised village of Galilee; and this Jesus was a carpenter’s son that nobody had ever heard of.” He was speaking to a human fault everyone has and fights every day whether religious, or assessing a person, their work, wisdom, influence, where they come from, or where we believe they belong.
Jesus came as “the poor man’s Christ”. He doesn’t look at any of the qualifiers we place on each other. He saves the rich and the poor and everyone in-between. So Nathanael jeers, “Nazareth? Can anything good come from there?” And Philip replies, “Come and see.” Find out for yourself, he was implying, because something cannot be judged by where it came from. We know Jesus didn’t come from Nazareth. It didn’t matter. Nathanael needed to ‘come and see’.
‘Come and see’. Isn’t that what we’re asking the lost to do? Come by faith. Believe in Christ by coming to him. “Oh, taste and SEE that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8). Even saints are asked to take refuge in the Lord. ‘Come and see’! We all need to be reminded to continually keep our eyes focused on the Lord. He is our refuge. God watches over the righteous and he delivers us. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18). A wonderful reminder to the children of God.
How emboldened and encouraged we can be knowing our Father protects us in ways we can’t imagine.
Share the Good News with someone the next chance you get! Pray for an opportunity to tell someone to “Come and see” that God is good and he watches over the righteous and delivers us. Do you know someone who is brokenhearted or crushed in spirit? God is near to them. Pray for and with them.
Our current memory verse, Hebrews 11:4, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
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