02 - John 1:51

’Verily, verily I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.’ --John 1:51.

These words of our Lord were addressed to Nathanael. We have a very interesting account of the interview which proved to be of such everlasting importance to Nathanael. It is full of suggestions. Philip findeth Nathanael. Can we really know Christ and not desire that our friends should know him? What is our friendship worth if we carry not a glad report of the majesty and grace and truth that are in Christ? Philips message was met by prejudice and unbelief. Your Jesus is of Nazareth; this is enough to show that he is not the Messiah; of all places in the world this is surely the last where we should look for a Divine deliverer. How many, even in our own day, are hindered from hearkening to the Gospel message by some similarly plausible but groundless prejudice. How many in this country (India) are unwilling to look to Christ for salvation, because his Gospel comes to them from a foreign land. But happy is that man in whom candour is stronger than prejudice; who keeps open all the doors of his mind; who will not so far favour even his most cherished opinions as to protect them from the test of new light. As the spirit of Nathanael was opposed to all guile, so it was open to all inquiry. He came and saw. "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile," exclaimed our Lord, thus showing that he already knew him. Of course he knew him if he was a true and guileless Israelite; for this implied that he had been born again; and Christ has had to do with every soul which has experienced this change. It was time then that Nathanael should know Christ; it was impossible that he should remain without this knowledge; the Spirit of truth is the Spirit that reveals Christ; and the providence of God is subordinate to the economy of redemption. "When thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee." What took place under the fig-tree we are not told. The other disciples doubtless asked Nathanael; but he probably declined satisfying their curiosity. There are secrets of Christian experience which the heart cannot share with others; it can only say. Go to Jesus and learn for thyself what he can impart. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. There is a private and untranslatable commerce of Christ and the individual soul; in some respects there is a separate language for every believer in his communications with the Master; he has a white stone, and in the stone a name written that no other man knoweth.

It is, however, pardonable to speculate about that which Nathanael and Jesus saw under the fig-tree. The very specific reference seems intended to challenge thought. It seems not unlikely that a key is furnished us in our Lord’s closing words to Nathanael: "Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." This is the very language in which Jacob’s vision is described in Genesis 28:12; it is in fact a quotation from the Septuagint, with the words ’’Son of man" substituted for "it," the ladder; and conveys the idea that Christ himself is the ladder that joins earth to heaven, that stairway that connects sinful man with the throne of God; Christ, the same yesterday, today and for ever, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. There could have been no gracious message of God to man, no hopeful petition of man to God, if Christ had not been foreordained the Way, the Truth, the Life.

Let us then suppose that Nathanael had been, as pious Jews were then much engaged in doing, praying for God’s salvation that it might be soon revealed, praying for the manifestation of the Messiah; that he had been dwelling upon the second Psalm, in which Christ is spoken of as the Son of God and as the King of Israel; that he fell asleep under the fig-tree and had a vision like that of Jacob, heaven opened and a stairway reaching to heaven, with angels ascending and descending. He wakes, and from his dream gathers assuredly that the time is at hand, and marvels in his own mind what can be the connection between the second Psalm and Jacob’s vision; with extraordinary hopefulness he returns to his house, where he learns that Philip was calling for him. Philip immediately announces to him the astounding fact that he of whom Moses and the prophets had written had appeared, and that Jesus of Nazareth was he. The mention of Nazareth confounds him; but his heart is full of the glorious intimation given him under the fig-tree; so what can he do but go and see? We may supplement this supposition by another, that as a seraph cleansed the iniquity of Isaiah by a coal from the altar, so it had been shown him that his guile was taken away by him whom that ladder prefigured. Ah, it is doubtless our guile that hinders our perception of the fulness of evidence that accompanies Jesus. A thorough truthfulness, an entire consecration to truth, is all that any man needs in order to recognise the glory of God as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ. We may confidently say, Come and see, to one whose eyes have been anointed with eye-salve, one who is not afraid of truth. The word "hereafter" simply means "from now," "henceforth." Heaven is opened, heaven is brought near in Christ. We know heaven as we know Christ. We are in heaven as we are in Christ. Let there be faith, and heaven is opened; the throne of God is there in view; there is a perfect means of communicating with it. Take away faith, and heaven is shut; there is only this earth and imagination. And what have we in the Gospels but the rearing of this divine flight of steps? What are Christ’s words and works but these successive steps? till at the last we hear him say, "Have I been so long with you, Philip, and yet hast thou not known me? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." This is eternal life, this is heaven, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; to know that the kingdom of heaven is among you. As a matter of fact, however, we have not yet attained, neither are already perfect; have not yet attained unto the measure of the stature of a perfect man in Christ; heaven is yet above us. It is much if we can say, This is none other than the gate of heaven, as we pitch our tents here and there amid the luminous records of the Gospel, and catch new glimpses of Divine glory beaming from the person of Jesus.