John1: 43-51 
“Own It!”

 

This story of Nathanael is about seeing, and about being seen. It’s a story about seeing what’s right in front of you, and how hard that really is. It’s about a man who learns to see things in a whole new way, because of how Jesus sees him.

 

Jesus finds Philip, tells him "Follow me." Without even stopping to fill in a time and talent survey, Philip signs up for the outreach committee and goes off to find Nathanael, announcing, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus, son of Joseph from Nazareth."

 

Nathanael isn’t impressed. He asks, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip doesn’t argue with him. Instead he simply repeats the invitation that Jesus gave the day before to Andrew and another disciple: "Come and see."

 

When Nathanael comes into view, Jesus likes what he sees. He exclaims approvingly, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" But Nathanael can’t see Jesus, because he’s looking through the clouded lens of his own prejudice. When he looks at Jesus, he sees somebody from Nazareth. Can anything good come from there? So he brushes off Jesus’ compliment, and asks, "Where did you get to know me?" You can hear his unspoken question, a frosty "Do I know you?"

 

Then the story goes on:

 

"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!"

 

"I saw you under the fig tree," Jesus explains to Nathanael. Jesus tells Nathanael he has seen him—seen him, and instantly knows him, recognizes him. And suddenly Nathanael sees Jesus as he really is.

 

So what did Jesus see in Nathanael? And what about Nathanael? Seeing is believing, we sometimes say. But for Nathanael, it’s being seen that makes the difference. What is it about being seen that makes him a believer?

 

Nathanael is changed by how Jesus sees him. Before Nathanael has known Jesus, Jesus has seen and known him. How we long to be seen in this way, to be truly known by another, and loved for who we are. "You have searched me out and known me," as the psalmist sings, praising the God who has known us before we were even born, cherished us as we took shape in our mother’s wombs.

 

Nathanael is changed by how Jesus sees him. Before Nathanael has known Jesus, Jesus has seen and known him. How we long to be seen in this way, to be truly known by another, and loved for who we are.

I don’t really know why, but as I was reading this text from John something kept pulling me back to one of the most loved scriptures in the Bible, Psalm 139: 1-6

¹O Lord, you have searched me and known me.²You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. ³You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. ⁴Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. ⁵You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. ⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

You have searched me and known me!

The Psalmist here says that (that truth) is really too wonderful for him to take in…

A truth so high that he cannot even grasp it…and it is, isn’t it? Such an awe-inspiring truth…that we are known…searched and known by the One who is the source of everything…that knowledge bewildered the Psalmist in many other ways especially in Psalm 8:

 

“…what are human beings that You are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”

But in language so clear and so clean the psalmist puts in touch with the purest of truths:

“²You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. ³You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. ⁴Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. ⁵You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.” 

For some reason these are the words that have bounced around in my mind all week long. 

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me.”  

I believe that verse points to the love of God.  Would you agree with that?

You see, one does not bother to search what one does not love. Here’s the point.  

God loves you…God loves everyone…and there’s not much that you or I or anyone else can do about that.  God loves everyone…we’re to love everyone as well…

It is a fundamental point of truth that we can not receive the Love of God with one hand, while withholding that love from anyone else with the other. We are to love as God loves.

 So, if we are to love as God loves…and God loves us…doesn’t it stand to reason that we should love ourselves too? If we are to love as God loves then we are to love everything that God loves…that includes ourselves. Didn’t Jesus tell us that when He said:

Matthew 22: 37-40

^37“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

So, here is the point of the sermon…you don’t have to wait, I’ll give it to you right out of the gate.

 God expresses His love for us by searching and knowing us…so if we are to love ourselves as God loves then we must search and know ourselves.

 Now let me repeat that because I really want you to get this…God expresses His love for us by searching and knowing us and if we are to love as God love us…we are called in some profound way to search and to know ourselves.

 That is what I would like you to think about this week…spend some time getting to know yourself.  We are intended to search and know ourselves. Ya’ll still with me…am I doing all right so far?

 Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “under every “deep” a lower “deep” opens”.

 We all know don’t we…that when you start digging around in your soul you will always be turning up new things…encountering things you never knew before…

I don’t guess this comes as radical news to you, but I’m not the same person I was

Ten years ago…not the same person as five years ago…not the same as one year ago and I dare to say not the same as even a month ago…and if you are digging around in your soul the you’ll be different tomorrow than you are today. Life is a journey into the endless and boundless realm of the human soul. Or at least that’s what life ought to be…it ought to be a journey in to the soul.

 Now I understand, like you, I know some people who have become ridged,

emotionally calcified, spiritually petrified, people who wouldn’t know a shovel if it hit them on the head (and they may as well be dead). To live is to dig and you should never quit digging…y’all hearing me?  “under every deep a lower deep opens” and so it’s true on some fundamental level that we can never know ourselves, but with that caveat in place, I still believe that we are called to search and know ourselves…because when we do that we will introduce ourselves to parts of ourselves that are known to God, but which we may have pushed aside. Loving as God loves means to acknowledge all that there is to know about ourselves.

 

Here’s the deal…if y’all are still with me…there is within us both amazing beauty and frightful ugliness. Those realities exist within every human person, and “being saved” means at least living in touch with both of those…acknowledge and embrace both the inner beauty and the frightful ugliness that resides within us.  To be saved means not to live in estrangement from any part of ourselves…we must own whatever there is to own in our soul…that’s what it means to search ourselves to be in touch with parts of ourselves that God has searched and known, and that’s every part.  Don’t be a stranger to any part of yourself. All of you is worth something…I don’t mean all of you plural “You”…I mean all of you personally and individually is worth something…if only you will own it.  

 

There is beauty within you…I want you to say that with me…“There is beauty within me!”  just say it and be proud……“There is beauty within me!” Own it! We are created in the image of God.  And that means that something beautiful lives…dwells…inside of you. Own it!  Embrace what is lovely about yourself…God already has! Own that part of yourself that God…long ago…owned and accepted.