John 1:43-51 (The first disciples.)

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

Have you ever thought about writing a book? We all have a story to tell, but where do we begin! Maybe a good first step is to identify our target audience. The author of John’s Gospel was addressing the Greek world. He had a story to tell about Jesus, but more than that at the end of the 20th chapter he says ‘But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’ What a task! Can you imagine John sitting at a table, quill in hand, thinking, ‘How shall I start’!

The first fourteen verses of John’s Gospel are very well-known. We hear them every Christmas in the traditional Service of 9 Lessons & Carols. I can imagine his Greek audience saying, ‘Wow, that is impressive. Now convince us.’ If I had been the author I would have been tempted to launch into some amazing story such as Jesus turning water into wine. Indeed, this is how chapter two begins, but before that we have the seemingly odd story of Jesus recruiting four of John the Baptist’s disciples – Andrew, Peter, Philip and Nathanael. Why? Why might this have been of interest?

At the time of Jesus many people had two names – a Hebrew names because of their ethnicity, and a Greek name because of it being the common language of the wider world. Our Gospel writer says that two men become followers of Jesus. One is un-named whilst the other is called Andrew. Andrew is a Greek name. Andrew then brings his brother, Simon, to Jesus. Jesus gives Simon a Greek name – Peter. The next disciple is Philip who is associated with Greeks in later stories. To a Greek audience these encounters would have been interesting. They would be reminders that although Jesus and his first disciples were Jewish they lived in an area heavily influenced by Greek culture. If John’s purpose in writing his Gospel was to encourage his audience to follow Jesus, then it was useful to introduce some key characters they could identify with. Whilst the disciples weren’t Greek, at least they had been influenced by Greek culture. 

And finally there is Nathanael. The conversation between Nathanael and Jesus has references to the story of Jacob (who becomes Israel). In an extraordinary twist, Jesus hints that he will be the new Israel. Also, Nathanael conveniently came from Cana in Galilee – a nice editorial link to the next story which is the Wedding in Cana where water was changed into wine. Everything is pointing to a boundary bursting, multicultural new beginning with universal appeal. We are all drawn into the story.