John's account of Jesus calling his apostles of course differs from the Synoptic Gospels. Instead of Jesus calling them and they leave their nets, the ones who will become the apostles go and get each other. Once they meet Jesus and become convinced of who he is, they go get someone else.
When Nathaniel meets Jesus he is immediately confronted with a man who knows him - "Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit." Nathaniel is confused by Jesus' pronouncement of his character. And so Jesus goes further - not only do I know you but I saw you under the fig tree. This is enough for Nathaniel, Jesus is indeed the Son of God and the King of Israel. Both are messianic terms. Jesus then tells Nathaniel he will see greater things that just being told where he was sitting. Jesus then alludes to the dream that Jacob saw on his way to Haran where he sees a ladder between heaven and earth.
Some interesting ideas pop up in the text. Compare Nathaniel's encounter with the pre-resurrected Jesus to that of Thomas' encounter with the resurrected Jesus. Jesus asks a similar question, just because you've encountered me personally do you believe? With Nathaniel he says that more will be coming. With Thomas he says that others will believe in spite of of not seeing. Of course Jesus asks the blind man who now sees (9:35) and the disciples (16:31) if they believe.
Although these are interesting insights into the text I want to stay with our theme "Keep your eye on Heaven" with the lesson. So my focus will be on 1:51, Jacob's ladder. It seems that in this text the disciples are encountering Jesus who in John's Gospel is portrayed as the one coming from heaven and believing in him because they are convinced that he is the messiah. Even though Jesus is speaking to Nathaniel while alluding to Jacob's ladder, it appears to me that the allusion is for the other disciples and the readers as well. So then we may ask the question as the disciples should have asked the question - how is Jesus the bridge between heaven and earth? I'm going to suggest 4 ways that Jesus becomes the bridge.
1. He is two natures - one divine and from heaven, one flesh and from the earth (1:1,14)
2. He is come to teach us of heaven - they call him rabbi (1:38), he tells Nicodemus that he came to tell us of heaven (3:12)
3. He is the fulfiller of God's plan - the one of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets spoke (1:45)
4. He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (1:29) - If Jesus forgives us our sin then we can fellowship heaven
Not sure where to take this for an application but will mull that over.
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