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, I’m going to go a little different way with this pasasge this morning: Nathanael’s prejudice. Jesus calls him “a man of complete integrity” in verse 47, but that doesn’t mean he’s sinless. The first words we get from him are actually really negative. And I’ll just say since Jesus’s earthly father Joseph is one of my favorites, how dare he say anything negative about Joseph! It’s one thing to wonder if the Messiah would come from Nazareth. It’s another thing to wonder if a good man would come from there, and Joseph was a very good man.
It makes me think about the prejudices I’ve grown up with in my life. I was raised in a time when white supremacy was encouraged. But beyond working to overcome those prejudices, I remember having a real distrust of Iranians because I was about nine years old when the Iranian hostage crisis happened. I didn’t understand what was going on. I just knew Iranians had kidnapped a bunch of Americans. Sixteen years later, I was married, my wife was miscarrying our first child in a Houston hospital, and it was an Iranian doctor who helped us. I don’t know how I knew he was Iranian, but somehow I did. I was immediately prejudiced against him. Can anything good come out of Iran? Well, of course it can! What a stupid thing for me to wonder.
Even now, I look around the world: Can anything good come out of Russia? Can anything good come out of Iran? Israel? Palestine? Sometimes, I even wonder about the United States. There are some people who look at the immigrants we have in our country from south of the U.S. border and wonder can anything good come from Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Haiti, or Honduras?
Father, I don’t know why it is, but it seems that all humans, even those with impeccable integrity, have a problem with prejudice. I still do. Even in Texas, we look at Californians who have moved here with a suspicious eye. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for ever thinking that I’m better than anyone else in your creation. Even if they are someone who is hostile towards you, they might just be wheat that looks like a weed. They are worthy of my love. They are likely to have something for you to teach me through them. And they might just be another Joseph of Nazareth. Help me to see each person I encounter today with your eyes.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
Emails to God 