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An astonishingly humble beginning

Text: John 1:43-51

AN ASTONISHINGLY HUMBLE BEGINNING

John the Baptizer proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God. He declared Him as the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sin of the world! Those are startling declarations, to say the least! One might expect that a Person who was hailed as the Son of God would have a spectacular public entrance. Yet, the reverse was true. The commencement of His public ministry couldn’t be quieter.

Who could have imagined that Jesus the Messiah would commence His public ministry in such a quiet way? Did people expect the Messiah to come in pomp and glory? They would have been disappointed. In the most unexpected way, Jesus the Messiah began His ministry by inviting people to follow Him so that they could know Him better. Was this the true Messiah? Why wasn’t He accompanied by special fanfare? Almost unobtrusively Jesus began to establish Himself and His ministry as the Redeemer.

AN INVITATION TO FOLLOW

Jesus went about gathering Disciples in a very quiet way. When John began his public ministry, he made quite an impression on the multitudes. His clothes were distinctively eccentric, for he wore a simple garb made of camel’s hair (Matthew 3:4). That however was probably quite suited for one who lived in the wilderness. His diet of locusts and wild honey was austere to say the least (Matthew 3:4).

If John had not pointed Jesus out from the multitudes, you could have passed Him by without noticing Him. Jesus wasn’t looking for a huge crowd of followers, only true-hearted and noble-minded ones, like Andrew and John.

Jesus went on to call others to follow Him. John recorded the calling of a few other disciples who formed the first group of followers.

“The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee,
and He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow Me.’
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.”
John 1:43

Little was said about how Andrew and John became convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. Even less was said about how Philip came to believe in Jesus as the Christ. However, this much was true in their response.

“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.'”
John 1:45

What Philip said in his word of testimony shared with his good friend Nathanael was John’s way of telling us how Philip must have checked Jesus out, employing his knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures.

Philip must have been fairly well instructed, for he spoke of “Moses in the law, and also the prophets”. He must have examined Jesus and His knowledge of the Scriptures. Quietly and gently, Jesus must have expounded the Scriptures to him, and with each word of explanation, Philip became more and more convinced that Jesus was the One spoken of in the Scriptures.

THE CONVINCING OF A SCHOLAR

Andrew and John, and even John were but humble fisher folk. They might have some basic knowledge of the Scriptures, and they might have been easily convinced. But what about a scholar? What about a person like Nathanael, who when he heard his good friend Philip introducing Jesus as the son of Joseph, and hailing from Nazareth, he was not impressed.

Nathanael’s response was one of skepticism. He responded to Philip almost with scorn.

“And Nathanael said to him,
‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?'”
John 1:46

Perhaps Philip should have said that the birthplace of Jesus was from Bethlehem, that might have gone down better, for the birthplace of the Messiah was prophesied in the Scriptures (Cf. Micah 5:2). Perhaps Philip could have been more convincing, if he had declared Jesus to be the Son of David, for Nathanael would probably have been familiar with the prophecy of Jesus coming from the lineage of King David.

Philip had spoken out of sheer thrill and excitement. Jesus was from Nazareth, at least he grew up there. Jesus’ legal and earthly father was Joseph. It was normal to introduce someone by mentioning the name of the father. Philip was barely able to contain his excitement. What he meant to say to his friend Nathanael was that he was astonished at his discovery. He had met a man whose name was Jesus. He seemed to be a very quiet person, and He came from Nazareth. He discovered that He was the son of a carpenter named Joseph. But there was something very distinct and different about Jesus, once you spoke to Him. His knowledge of the Scriptures, His demeanour, His whole being was unlike anyone he had ever known. The more one got to know Him better, the more one became convinced that this seemingly ordinary person, called Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph was none other than the one written in the Scriptures. He was the Messiah!

Nathanael was not easily convinced. Philip knew his friend only too well. The only way to convince Nathanael was to get him to meet up with Jesus. Surely, a true scholar must at least make an attempt to check out an important opinion, especially one that said that the Messiah had come.

Nathanael owed Philip his friend that much. If Jesus was the Messiah, he would know. If Jesus wasn’t the Messiah as Philip thought, then he must at least try and convince his good friend that he must not be misled.

What a strange but profound beginning of the public ministry of Jesus of Nazareth! He allowed for people to come to Him with all their misgivings!