Our traveler is anxious to hear more! His Messiah is calling people. When the two men with him had first began telling what they knew of Jesus’s calling of the first deciples our traveler had been confused by the “band of un-schooled ruffians and old fishermen,” but now as he listened a new thought came to him, and it filled him with such excitement and joy that he could hardly contain it. If Jesus was calling others, people of low standing and no formal training in the law, perhaps he could join and follow Jesus too?
The two men with our traveler continue speaking. They relate the way the next deciple came to follow Jesus.
John 1:45-51 ESV
[45] 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.” [46] Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” [47] Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” [48] Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” [49] Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” [50] Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” [51] And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Here in this verse we can assume that Jesus said ‘I saw you while you were under the fig tree,’ because Nathaniel was sitting under a fig tree when Philip found him. However, I like the way The Chosen series portrays this scene, Nathaniel has just lost everything, he literally sets fire to his ambitions and dreams and then in tears gathers the ashes and pours them over his head, all while under a fig tree. Do you know why I like this? It’d because it gives so much more meaning to the moment when Jesus says, “I saw you under the fig tree.”
When we are in desperation, and our dreams have gone up in flame, and we sit alone and crying, we can feel no one in the world sees us, nor cares. Yet in the moments we are closer to Jesus than any other time. Why? Because we have nothing else, so we draw nearest to the only one who has stayed beside us, the only true thing that has not disappeared with all the rest. Jesus says He draws near to the brokenhearted because it’s in those moments that we feel no one sees us, yet the King of the world is saying, “I see you when you think you are all alone and no one cares, I care.”
I do not know the true path that lead to Nathaniel’s door, but I know that anytime I am having a fig tree moment, my Jesus is with me.
Carried in the cross 