Anyways, today I started reading John. John 1 is the famous "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the Word was God...." passage, which I guess I'm "familiar with" so it didn't really strike me. Instead I noticed this verse:
Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
The full context is John 43-50 when Jesus calls Nathanael (who is apparently called Bartholomew in the other gospels) along with his brother Phillip.
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Nathanael (Bartholemew) doesn't get a whole lot of speech-time in the Bible. So far as I can tell, this is the only thing he is recorded as saying. I know people use the phrase "doubting Thomas", but I wonder why you never hear "prejudiced Nathanael". Thomas doubted that Jesus had come back from the dead, which seems pretty reasonable to me. On the other hand, Nathanael just flat out says “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
One thing I was reminded of only yesterday was how badly my own preconceptions can hinder my ability to receive God's love. I claim to be looking for Gods blessings, but only if them come from someone or something respectable. Imagine if that had been the end of the story, and Nathanael had missed out on being an Apostle just because he bought into this stereotype about Nazareth.
If you look up other parts of the bible, you see that Nazareth is not a great place. In fact, in Luke 4:29, the people there try to throw Jesus off of a cliff (which reminds me of one of my favorite verses, Psalm 141:6 "their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs..." ). I guess my point is, maybe Nathanael was "right" to look down on Nazareth. Maybe he had a bad experience there. Maybe all the people there were jerks. And yet, Jesus came from Nazareth too.
Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. When Jesus reveals his (literally) God-like power, Nathanael immediately believes in him. It's nice to know that God is willing to work around our own shortfallings and preconceived notions about who he is (he does this all the time). Even still, I don't want to risk missing out God's grace because I'm expecting it to appear in a certain form. And that, I think, is the main point that struck me... that I should willing to accept God's grace in whatever way it chooses to appear.
So next time I look down on someone because of how they look or act or where they're from, feel free to tell me:
"Don't be a prejudiced Nathanael"
PS. Somehow I completely forgot to mention the part where Jesus says “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” I mean, how cool is that? I believe in God because of the little ways he reveals himself to me everyday, but I shouldn't forget that he has so much more in store for me. Without a doubt, the Kingdom of God is going to be awesome!
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