⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” ⁴⁴ Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.

⁴⁵ Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

⁴⁶ “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.

⁴⁷ As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”

⁴⁸ “How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

⁴⁹ Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

⁵⁰ Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” ⁵¹ Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.”

John 1:43-51

Dear God, okay, the first time I read this I thought, “Oh, how I would love to get that compliment from Jesus: A man of complete integrity.” I read one translation that said, “There is n duplicity in him.” I love that. I would love for you to be able to say there is no duplicity in me. But then I reread the story and I noticed that Nathanael is certainly flawed. Just his supremacist attitude towards Nazareth. That shows he has a bit of an attitude born out of insecurity.

I just looked it up and found that John is the only one who tells us about Nathanael. He doesn’t eventually become one of the 12. Unless Nathanael went by a different name. This story and the one in John 21 where Jesus appears to the disciples after the resurrection are the only references to him in the entire Bible. So I guess we have John to thank for helping us know both Nicodemus and Nathanael. It would be interesting to see which biblical characters John tells us about that the others omit.

But going back to my initial thing about integrity and duplicity, this is a reminder that those aren’t enough. I can have these things and still have a hard, unloving heart. In fact, they can work against me if I rely too much on them and not on you. They need to be an integral part of my life. They are an important part of my life. But I can’t build my whole life on it because, well, if I have not love then I am nothing.

Father, I’m grateful for who I am, but I can also definitely see where those shortcomings are. Well, at least some of them. I know I have some shortcomings to which I am blind. Forgive me. Love others through me. Be glorified through me. Forgive me for my superior attitude sometimes. I worship and praise you.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen