‘Come and see.´ John 1:46
In the brief conversation between Philip and Nathanael in today’s Gospel reading there is much about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. There is much to challenge those who think being a Christian is about easy choices.
“Philip found Nathanael,” Saint John says.
In a world where individualism is dominant, where people talk about ´me-time,’ where self-fulfilment’ and ´personal satisfaction’ are priorities, Christians are called to be people who care about community.
Look at the mind, body and spirit sections in bookstores and it quickly becomes apparent that spirituality in the current times is about what individuals are seeking, about what works for individuals, about individuals thinking and living as they see fit.
Philip avoids the trap of individualism, he avoids the attitude common in the current times that people should be left to find their own way. Philip believes that if he has found something that is life transforming, then he has a duty to share what he has learned, not to try to impose his beliefs, but to talk graciously about what he believes.
Do Christians now believe that their obligation towards their community is to speak of what they believe, or is their faith just something that is individual?
“We have found him”, Philip tells Nathanael.
Philip is an optimist.
In a world filled with pessimism, Christians are to be an optimistic people. How often, even in the churches, is the language usually of gloom and despondency? How often do Christians expect to be a disappearing group? How readily those who are cynics in the churches grab any opportunity to find fault with anyone who speaks in an optimistic way.
Philip could have been a pessimist. There was plenty about which to be pessimistic in First Century Palestine, plenty about which to be gloomy, but if Jesus is really the one spoken about by Moses and the prophets, then there can only be an overwhelming optimism.
If Christians now believe in Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life, then they should be a people full of optimism. When they read of Jesus, are they optimistic?
Nathanael said to Philip, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Nathanael speaks like a man with a closed mind, determined that people will correspond to what he believes about them, yet being Christian people is about being an open people, open to the grace of God working in people’s lives and open to greeting people around as brothers and sisters. It is much easier to be closed in one’s attitudes, to stick to what has always been thought, to decide that the world is as one thinks it is and that there is no reason for to be challenged, no reason to be changed.
Philip could easily have shared Nathanael’s attitudes, it would have been much easier just to have carried on as before rather than to accept the challenges that came to him. Philip is open to Jesus and Christians are challenged to be open, to accept that God may be speaking to them.
When Christians are open, it is amazing what things can happen.
Philip said to Nathanael, “Come and see.”
The easy response for Philip would have been the worldly response, “that’s fine. Don’t bother”. It would have been easy for Philip to have turned his back and walked away, left Nathanael to his own thoughts and his own ways.
Wouldn’t that have been the usual response? Wouldn’t most people have taken the worldly option and decided it didn’t suit them to try to argue?
Philip instead chooses a spiritual response, “come and see”, he says to Nathanael.
He is not telling Nathanael what to think, he is not saying that he must reach the same conclusions. Instead, he graciously invites Nathanael to come and find out for himself what it is that Jesus has to offer.
Can Christians now manage such a response to people in the present time, not to say they must think like us, but to invite them to think about Jesus for themselves?
Community or individualism? Optimism or pessimism? Openness or closed minds? Spiritual attitudes or worldliness?
The few words exchanged between Philip and Nathanael in the Gospel reading for today can teach people much about what it should mean for them to be like those first disciples, what it should mean for them to follow Jesus.