Come and See
A Reflection On John 1:43-51
At that time, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael, and he 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.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” 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.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”
John 1:43-51
Today, on the first Sunday of Lent, the Church celebrates the Sunday of Orthodoxy. At the core of this celebration is a recognition of our shared faith, which unites us as one community across time in Christ. Specifically, this recognition is reflected in our commemoration of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, which celebrates the return of icons to Churches after the heresy of Iconoclasm, highlighting how “the honor paid to the image passes to the prototype; and he who venerates the image venerates in it the person represented.”
The councils do not create theology in our tradition. Rather, they profess what has been practiced from the very beginning of our faith. Thus, in this proclamation of the Council, we see that in the same way the Son took flesh, entering our shared creation, through His creation, we too are led to Him. Icons, as a part of His creation, being painted with matter, play a similar role in leading us to the prototype of our Creator God.
In keeping with the unity of our Orthodox faith, today’s Gospel highlights the call to discipleship, with Jesus telling Philip, ‘Follow me,’ encouraging us to respond actively to Christ’s invitation and deepen our relationship with Him. To understand what we are being called to participate in within our faith, taking up the call to ‘Follow me’ is required of all of us.
The Gospel continues by stating that then Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” In this proclamation, Philip highlights that he believes they have found the Savior spoken of. So he encourages Nathanael to come with him. The Savior or Messiah believed in was to be a great leader who would free Israel from their oppressors, so hearing that Jesus is from a small town such as Nazareth, Nathanael questions, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” In response to this question, Philip says, “Come and see.”
In this "come and see" statement, we see encapsulated the entire foundation of our faith. We cannot reason our way into faith, for faith is a movement of the human person towards its Creator. Remember, as we stated before, that the proclamation of the seventh Council is ‘the honor paid to the image passes to the prototype; and he who venerates the image venerates in it the person represented.’
To witness this procession to the prototype, that is, an invitation to a relation to God, in faith, we must continually seek God and pursue Him in how we live our lives. In this call to come and see, the same is being expressed. This invitation encourages us to trust in God’s call and approach Him with confidence and love, urging us to keep seeking Him daily.
Through the interaction between Christ and Nathanael, when Christ states, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” In referring to Nathanael as having no guile, Christ identifies the openness with which he approaches Him. Thus, Nathanael approaches Christ with an open heart, and in doing so, it is revealed to him, “You shall see greater things than these… Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”
It is through the openness to receive Christ that Nathanael is invited to experience a higher reality. Remember how we stated earlier that Nathanael may have believed that Jesus was an earthly Savior? Well, here Christ shows Nathanael and all of us, for that matter, that through our taking up the call to come and see who He is with an open heart, we are invited to participate in a higher reality than we may have ever imagined, for we are invited to the loving presence of God Himself.
Our faith calls each of us to have our lives changed by a relationship with the Risen Lord. We lead one another down this path, as we see with Philip, and the whole creation leads us to our Creator, as we see in the veneration of icons. In one way or another, our Lord is calling each of us to draw near to Him.
Thus, if our Lord is calling us to come and see in the same way that Philip did for Nathanael, then, like Nathanael, we are called to have no guile in the way we approach Him. When we approach Christ with the openness of Nathanael, we are open to receiving the truth of who He is, which has been embodied and passed down through the Church since this initial call. An open heart fosters trust and a readiness to receive God’s grace, granting us the strength to live up to the call Christ makes to Philip: “Follow me.” Approach Him with humility, knowing He desires to meet us as we are.
In our modern age, we want to study Christ as a concept and understand theological concepts in themselves. Even though such a study is part of our lives, we cannot know Christ without approaching Him with an open heart. Often in this postmodern age, we dissect something to understand its essence and substance. Yet, God is unknowable, and the way we relate to Him is through His revelation of aspects or energies of Himself to us. Simply put, God relates to us so we may know Him, yet we will never know the fullness of God until we stand in His presence at the end of time.
Rather than dissecting God, we are called to humbly approach Him and receive the gifts He offers us: a transfigured life in His presence. At the core of our faith is an invitation to come and see the glory of our life in the presence of our Lord. We are not called to hold to intellectual dogmas; rather, we are invited to have our very lives transformed. This is in line with the transformation of the lives of the Apostles, the fathers of the Ecumenical Councils, and all those who have taken up the call to come and see with an open heart.
This is what it means to truly be Orthodox: we approach Christ with an openness of heart, as all the saints before us, to receive all the gifts He has to offer us. We are on this journey together, leading one another in the same direction. The creation also reveals to us our Creator and the profound love that He has for us.
The whole world is inviting us to the revelation of who Christ is, for He is its Creator, and His Spirit is at work forever in all places and filling all things. It is up to us to move towards Him with an open heart, taking up our charge to come and see without guile. Practicing this openness of approach is at the core of our Lenten practice and of the call to live our lives in Christ.
Let us humbly do so, and as we journey towards our Lord, let us open our hearts to the revelation of who He truly is, inviting all of us to be participants in transfigured life in His risen, loving, and saving presence. All we are called to do is follow Him by coming and seeing who He is every moment of our life with an open heart, to receive the gifts He lovingly continues to offer us.
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