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August 24, 2014

Plainspoken

Preacher: Pastor Braun Campbell Series: Christians in the Captial Category: Biblical Scripture: John 1:43–1:51

St. Bartholomew, Apostle
St. John's Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
John 1:43-51

“Plainspoken”

We’re taking a little bit of a detour today. We won’t to be hearing from St. Paul’s letter to early Christians in Rome, which has served as the basis for this summer’s appointed readings and sermon series. But even so, the message that we do hear from God’s Word today is especially relevant for Christians in the capital.
On the Church’s calendar, August 24th remembers Bartholomew, one of the Twelve Apostles. But if you go and look for that name in today’s Gospel text, you’re not going to find it. This passage mostly just mentions Philip, Nathanael, and Jesus. Andrew, his brother Simon Peter, and even Jesus’ cousin John the Baptizer show up in the verses right before this episode. So where’s Bartholomew?

He’s not hiding: John just uses this disciple’s other name. “Bartholomew” translates from Hebrew as “son of Tholomaios.” You could call the same man Nathanael or Bartholomew, just like if you were in a group where at least a couple of people had the same first name. In the other Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), we see Bartholomew listed among the Twelve, usually connected with Philip, as is the case with Nathanael here in John 1. We don’t know much else about Nathanael Bartholomew’s life before the account that we hear today, other than that he comes from Cana (John 21:2), another town up here in Galilee. That’s all.

So how does Nathanael come into the picture? Well, the original Greek text at the start of this passage is a little ambiguous: it reads, “The next day he decided to go to Galilee.” It might have been either Jesus or Andrew who decided to go up to Galilee and then finds Philip. It makes sense that it could have been Andrew, though, as John reports that Andrew went first to find his brother Simon. It would have been Andrew’s invitation that brought Philip to see Jesus. And then Philip does the same thing: he goes off to tell Nathanael the big news: “We’ve found him!” He says to Nathanael that this Jesus, from the town of Nazareth, the son of Joseph – pretty much all the information that you’d need to identify someone specific back in that time and place – this Jesus is the one that the Scriptures promised. He’s the one about whom Moses and the prophets wrote. In other words, he’s kind of a big deal!

Here, finally, we get our first glimpse of Nathanael and his character as we hear him respond, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Ouch! Now, people from the more metropolitan southern region of Israel around Jerusalem looked down on the people from Galilee in the north as country bumpkins – but remember that Nathanael was from Galilee, too, from Cana. So Nazareth, the small village where Jesus grew up, must have been a pretty lowly place if even other Galileans thought so little of it. But even if Nazareth really was that unimpressive, what Nathanael said still sounds kind of harsh.

You and I live in a time and place where what someone says can land them in a lot of trouble. For the past couple of decades, so-called “political correctness” has come to dominate the American scene. There’s a mindset out there that dictates what people can or can’t say – sometimes to so great an extent that you can’t say anything at all. At the same time, public figures and companies will often try to put “spin” on facts so that they can obscure the truth. In this context, someone like Nathanael might seem like a refreshing change of pace. Nathanael apparently tells it like it is. Charitably, we might call him a straight shooter, someone who is plainspoken: he is honest and direct in his speech. He doesn’t sugar-coat what he means to say. That’s not so bad, right?

Consider your experience, though. How often has just saying what you think worked out for the best?

The problem that we all face comes not from our inability to speak the truth or, at least, our perspective of the truth, but from our failure to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). We can get so caught up in our own self-interest or the conviction of the rightness of our own perspective – wise in our own eyes, in the words of Proverbs 3 – that we fail to care for other people. What you say can indeed hurt someone, even if you don’t mean your words to be hurtful. And, as Nathanael discovered, sometimes the opinions that we hold can be really far off the mark. When he offered his “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” remark, Philip simply responded by saying, “Come and see.”

Jesus exclaimed, “Truly, here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit,” when he saw Nathanael coming up with Philip. According to Jesus, Nathanael was an honest man. Jesus, knowing the man’s heart, knows that Nathanael has come without a hidden agenda. He went with Philip to investigate, to see for himself if his doubts about someone from Nazareth being the Messiah were justified. And Nathanael would soon learn that something good has indeed come out of Nazareth.

When Jesus demonstrates his miraculous knowledge of where Nathanael was before Philip found him, the truth of Philip’s claim hits our plainspoken friend. Once again, he says what he thinks: “Rabbi [my teacher/my master], you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” And he’s right. While Jesus knows what waits ahead for him, Nathanael had no idea that heaven would be opened by the Son of God hanging on a cross and giving up his life for the world.

This is the greatest truth that anyone might ever hope to hear: that God came into our world to open the doors of His kingdom for us. God the Son stepped down from his divine glory and was born as a baby in humble country into a household of modest means – and he grew up in a dinky village that was a joke even to the rural and unsophisticated people of the country. The Messiah, who was promised by God’s Word since the first people walked the earth, overturned the expectations of what it meant to be great as he spoke and lived out the truth of God’s love for the world, including people who were convinced of the rightness of their own perspective, including people who hurt others with their words.

Philip couldn’t have known all of this when he went to find Nathanael. He didn’t even try to convince his friend of the truth. He just invited Nathanael to “come and see.” You can do the same.

As God’s people today, as Christians in the capital, being plainspoken isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it can be a refreshing change of pace from the world around us. We live in a time and place where voices around us are trying either to win over or put down other people with their words. But being plainspoken, honest and direct in what you say, isn’t the same thing as being carelessly candid in your conversations. In all things, God’s people are to speak the truth in love, following the Eighth Commandment. We speak the truth in love to build others up, not to harm them, even though the truth may sometimes hurt.

Think of it this way: are your words leading people to Jesus? Like Andrew, like Philip, are you inviting people to “come and see” who Jesus is? Let them meet him and get to know him through your loving words and actions. You don’t need to put “spin” on who Jesus is and what he has done; just be honest and direct in speaking and showing others his care and love for them.

As God’s people today, hear and share His plainspoken answer to Nathanael Bartholomew: “Something good has come out of Nazareth.”

Amen.

other sermons in this series

Aug 31

2014

Love in Action

Preacher: Rev. Jack Meehan Scripture: Romans 12:9–12:21 Series: Christians in the Captial

Aug 17

2014

Grafted Branches

Preacher: Rev. Jack Meehan Scripture: Romans 11:1-2a–11:13-32 Series: Christians in the Captial

Aug 10

2014

Preachers

Preacher: Pastor Braun Campbell Scripture: Romans 10:5–10:17 Series: Christians in the Captial