NOTES for Joh 1:43-51

What happened to Nathanael under the fig tree? We will probably never know now. It is clear only that something happened there which no one but he and God could know. It is unsurprising that when Jesus reminds Nathanael of what he experienced then, Nathanael understands that this Man is from God. Judging by the fact that he calls Jesus the “King of Israel”, we may suppose that he acknowledged Him as the Messiah. Such a confession was no small thing, all the more because at first, having learned where Jesus came from, Nathanael had been very sceptical. But after what Jesus told him, his scepticism immediately gave way to complete trust. It might seem that it could not have been otherwise: the evidence was too compelling. Yet many others who met Jesus received evidence no less compelling and were in no hurry to trust Him, still less to recognise in Him the Messiah promised by God. Evidently Nathanael's decisiveness played its part: he was immediately promised that he would see something beside which everything he had seen before would seem insignificant. Indeed, decisiveness plays no small part on the way to the Kingdom. It probably arises above all from sincerity in seeking. All Nathanael's previous ideas should have made him doubt this stranger, and some explanation could have been found for the reference to what happened under the fig tree. But Nathanael does not try to be devious; he does not try to play hide-and-seek with the living Truth standing before him. And he receives his reward.