Wednesday, August 24, 2016

John 1: 45-51

Philip found Nathanael and told him,
“We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law,
and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
But Nathanael said to him,
“Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him,
“Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no duplicity in him.”
Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
Nathanael answered him,
“Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“Do you believe
because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?
You will see greater things than this.”
And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will see heaven opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

“Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

When God chose to be one of us he did not chose to come down as a great king. He did not come down to rule over us. He came as a baby born in a barn. He chose a life of poverty and hard labor. He came to ordinary parents. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were among the most common names of the day. Jesus was like us in all things except sin.            

Why is Jesus the great mediator? How can Jesus stand before the Father and speak on our behalf and then stand before us and speak for the Father? Jesus can speak to us divinely as human and speak to God humanly as God for he is both fully human and fully divine. Jesus is the bridge that perfects the relationship between God and man.

It is human nature to want to be like our own kind. Adam may have had the perfect relationship with God but it was a relationship at a distance because God was God and man was man. God made woman so man would have a companion like himself. Then God chose to be incarnate so he could be like us and have that perfect relationship with man.

How great is our God, who in his divine greatness would humble himself to become like us in all things so he could be closer to us, allowing us to love him more. God was no longer this grandeur being in the clouds so far out of our reach. God was with us and like us. We could talk to him and walk with him and embrace him.

And we could crucify him.

Thanks be to God.