Epiphany 2 How Does Jesus Appear to You?

 

How Does Jesus Appear to You?

Let us remember, epiphany means appearance. The texts and stories throughout the New Testament record the many different ways in which Jesus appears to people of all cultures, regions, wealthy and poor, young and old, of which our story about Philip and Nathaniel's experience with him in John 1:43-51 is just one example. Each recorded encounter as Jesus appears to people and groups of people tells us something about him, and shapes the way in which Jesus appears to us as well. Richard Rohr, who we have been listening to this week at Noonday Prayer, suggests: Your image of God creates you. Which in turn means, how Jesus appears in these stories, and in turn to us, creates us – makes us who we are as the Body of Christ in the world.

 

As Jesus appears to people, they attempt to describe Jesus with names and titles from the ancient texts of the people Israel. The number of “names” associated with Jesus in the Gospels, Paul’s letters and beyond is quite staggering. Just in this first chapter of John alone he is called: The Word. The Word made flesh. The light of the world. The Only Son. The one coming after me. The Lamb of God (who takes away the sin of the world). Son of God. Rabbi. Messiah (which is translated Anointed/Christos). Him about whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote. Jesus, son of Joseph of Nazareth, King of Israel, and finally, Son of Man, which Jesus himself borrows from Daniel’s apocalyptic vision of the Son of Man descending to earth upon a cloud in Daniel 7:13. 

 

Each of these names suggest important dimensions of who Jesus is: the one who fulfills scripture, the one who answers Israel’s hopes for a future leader, the new king like David or prophet like Moses. The reader, the listener, is asked to begin to see Jesus in all of these different ways that those who knew him experienced him. None of these on their own provides a complete picture of who and what Jesus is. And all of them together cannot even begin to fully describe who and what Jesus is. Which seems to suggest there are in fact many ways to know Jesus. Surely, we are invited to conclude, there must be at least one way of seeing Jesus that works for me!

 

Take the encounter with Nathaniel. Just prior to this, Peter and Andrew hear John the Baptist point to Jesus and say, “See that guy? He is the Lamb of God!”   Immediately they follow Jesus home and spend the day with him. Then, we are told Jesus heads north to Galilee. He runs into Philip, who knew Andrew and Peter, and says, “Follow me.” Philip does and then finds Nathaniel. Philip excitedly tells him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote! Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth!” Upon hearing that Jesus is from Nazareth Nathaniel thinks, well that’s all you need to know about him, and blurts out, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Because Nathaniel knows what everyone knows: that the “one about whom Moses and the prophets wrote” would never come from Nazareth or any of the northern region around Galilee as the people in this there were constantly running after the other gods and idols of their neighbors. Nathaniel knows that the one who is to come will come from the south, in Bethlehem, the City of David. Despite Nate’s outburst Philip says, “Come, let’s go see for ourselves.”

 

As they approach him, Jesus says to Nathaniel, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit! (or, as my old RSV would have it, ‘an Israelite without guile!’).” Nate is astonished. To address some one as an Israelite, and a respectable one at that, is how one addresses a trusted friend – and insider, a family member, members of the same clan. “How on earth do you know me? You’ve never met me!” blurts out Nate, now surely chagrined that he had deigned to diss the one who was “with God in the beginning!” To which Jesus says, “Oh, I saw you sitting under that fig tree over there before Philip even called you over.” Huh?

 

Nathaniel seems to be thinking, Is this some kind of mind-reading Jedi trick? But evidently this Jesus from Nazareth appears to have some deep, authentic insight about me just from seeing me sit under a fig tree! Nate suddenly sees Jesus for who he is and proclaims, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” To which Jesus responds, “You think that was good? You think this fig tree thing was good?  Wait until you see what I do next! Soon you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

 

Let’s ponder, just for a moment, what Nathaniel has said. Son of God and King of Israel. Israel, the name given by God to ancestor Jacob. Jacob who saw a vision of angels ascending and descending a ladder to heaven. Jacob who wrestled with someone all night who turns out to be God, and this God renames Jacob Israel- he who wrestles with God. All these ways Jesus appears to others and to us is meant to help us in our wrestling with God. But, King of Israel? Nate introduces a dark note of foreshadowing the conflict that lies ahead for Jesus, the light and life of all people that emanates from Nazareth of all places. Does Nathaniel have any idea that he is setting up the inevitable showdown with Herod, Caesar’s appointed “King of Israel”?

 

So ends the first chapter of John with its flurry of names for this Jesus who has appeared to Philip, Peter, Andrew and Nathaniel with a note of promise that what follows will demonstrate that Jesus is infinitely more than the sum of all the names and titles people attach to him. For after all, he is the Word; the Word that was with God in the beginning; and the Word that is God; not just God, but God made flesh! He is the ever astonishing one, whom each of us, like everyone in these stories, gets to know in many different ways, and what we all experience of Jesus put together does not even begin to describe all that he is and the wonder of it all! Throughout all these stories we are meant to see that it is how Jesus appears to us that lies at the center of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ the Son of God. And at the center of who we are and whose we are.

 

Story-teller John concludes the fourth gospel saying, “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” More astonishing than that, is that we are those people who, who like Philip and Nathaniel, know that this is not the end of the story. How Jesus appears to us, to you and to me, is all a part of this story. How Jesus appears to us matters, for it shapes who we are – collectively and individually. For those of us here today willing to follow Jesus wherever he goes as Philip does, and allow ourselves to respond to him directly, as Nathaniel does, the amazing journey of faith has just begun!

Amen. It is Truth. It is so!