Come and See

“Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.” John 1:45-26

The conversation between Nathanael and Philip takes place shortly after Jesus finds Philip and tells him to “follow me”… We don’t know Philip’s response to Jesus, all we know is that he went and told Nathanael. I’m sure Philip was full of excitement that he had found the Messiah. Maybe he had been looking for Him for a long time. But instead of joining in on the excitement, Nathanael is instead surprised that it could possibly be Jesus, simply because He is from Nazareth.

In that time, Jews hated the idea of their Messiah coming from Nazareth and that is exactly where Mary, the mother of Jesus, was from. (Luke 1:26) People from Judea looked down on the Galileans, so none of them wanted, or even expected, Jesus to come from those people. What captured my attention in this passage though, was the different conversations that take place - first starting between Nathanael and Philip…

The question Nathanael asks Philip is similar to one I have found myself asking God many times in my life when in a trial or facing a difficult time… “What good can come of this?” When thinking about it, I realize that this really is a faithless statement. Yet God in His amazing grace never gets impatient with our faithlessness. Instead, He answers just as Philip did… “Come and see.”

When storms of trials come into our lives, it is easy for us to become completely unsure of what God is really doing and why He is doing it. Sadly, it is not in our human nature to just trust God. Instead we easily doubt what He can do. But no matter how difficult our trial becomes, we cannot become faithless like Nathanael in this passage.

Further into John chapter 1, Nathanael listens to Philip and goes to meet Jesus. Yet Nathanael doesn’t believe that it is Him until Jesus literally proves Himself to Nathanael… “Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.” (Vs. 47-50)

Is it really possible to be so focused on the fact that no good can come of a situation that we completely miss seeing God in it? It must be, because it happens here to Nathanael. Maybe he had been told by so many people throughout his life that Jesus could not possibly come from Nazareth that he forgot that with God, all things are possible. Because of this, he came very close to missing Jesus all together.

From this, I realize that in the Christian life, we must not only have faith to “Come” – to follow after Christ. But we also have to have faith to “See” – to see His power, love, mercy, and grace… to see that He can make good out of an impossible situation. Yes, everyone around us might look at the trial or trouble we’re going through and say that it is impossible. But we must not forget that with God all things are, will, have been, and forever will be possible.

In this passage, Philip knew Jesus existed. That’s why he even began this conversation with Nathanael in the first place. That’s why he was able to answer “Come and see.” He knew what the result would be - he knew what Nathanael would find. He knew that good could really come from Nazareth – even though Nathanael didn’t. In the same way, God knows the end to all our trials and when we ask Him if good can come of what we are going through, His answer is just likes Philip’s… “Come and see.” Not just come, not just see; but come AND see. To do that takes faith. But when we do, we won’t only eventually find the end to our trial, but we will see how God will work it out for good - all for His glory. We will see that “…all things work together for good…” (Romans 8:28). We will see that “...God meant it unto good.” (Genesis 50:20)  And when His plan is revealed, we will be glad with exceeding, abundant, absolute, and complete joy.

One of my favorite parts of this passage is the very last phrase in verse 50 when Jesus says after proving Himself to Nathanael, “…thou shalt see greater things than these.” When we come through our trial and see God and His amazing grace, power and all He is capable of doing and that good can really come from impossible, it is one of the most amazing things we will ever see in the Christian life on earth. Because it’s something we waited for, suffered for, and prayed for sometimes for a very long time. Yet, even as amazing as that is, Jesus says we will see “greater things than these”… Something even greater than His glory being revealed – that’s what God can do. He doesn’t just make something good from impossible, He makes something great. All we have to do is stop questioning His true power, have faith, and listen to His calling, “Come and see.”