John 1:43. On the following day Jesus wished to go back to Galilee. He finds Philip and says to him: ‘Follow Me!’
In the morning I say to the two: ‘My time in this wilderness is over. I will go to Galilee, from where I came here. Do you wish to come with Me? I leave you free to choose, for I know that you have wives and children and do not leave them easily. Yet no one who leaves anything for My sake will lose what they have left, but will regain it many times over.’
Peter then says: ‘Lord, for love of You I would leave my life, let alone my wife and child! They will live without me, for I am a beggar and can provide them with little bread. Our fishing scarcely provides for half a human mouth, let alone nourishing support for a family! My brother Andrew is a good witness for me. We were indeed born in Bethsaida, but had to seek our food here on these desolate yet fairly fish-rich banks of the Jordan, where we have now also been baptized by John. Our father Jonas is still strong, as are our wives and sisters; add the blessing from above, and they will manage.’ I therefore praise them both, and we set out.
John 1:44. Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
On the path, which continued along the bank of the Jordan for a while, we meet Philip. He too was from Bethsaida and was already seeking his breakfast early in the morning with a poor net in the waves of the Jordan. Peter drew My attention to him and said: ‘O Lord, this man suffers greatly and is very poor, yet he is the most honest and upright of men, with true fear of God filling his heart! What if You allowed him to come along too?’
In response to Peter’s loving request, I say only: ‘Philip, follow Me!’ He does not need to be told twice, throws his net down before him and follows Me without asking where. Only once we are on our way does Peter say to him: ‘The One we are following is the Messiah!’ But Philip says: ‘My heart already told me that at the very moment He called me so lovingly.’
Philip was unmarried and was a teacher among the poor fishermen, since he knew Scripture fairly well. He was personally acquainted with Joseph of Nazareth and thus also knew Me, and knew a number of things that had happened at My birth and in My youth. He was also one of the few who secretly hoped to find the Messiah in My person. But since from My twelfth year onward I performed nothing miraculous and lived and worked like any other ordinary person, the first wondrous impression My birth had made vanished entirely in many people. Even those who had been most deeply stirred at the time said that My birth had become so wondrously famous only through a coincidence of all kinds of circumstances and phenomena, remarkable in itself, with which My birth was certainly unconnected. They also said that the gifted nature of My youth had so completely disappeared that no trace of it could be found in My more mature years. But Philip and a few others held on to a certain hope in Me, for they knew of the prophecy of Simon and Anna at My circumcision in the Temple and attached great importance to it.
John 1:45. Philip finds Nathanael and says to him: ‘We have found the One about whom Moses and the prophets wrote; He is Jesus, Joseph’s son from Nazareth.’
As Philip, who was following Me, deliberately searches for Nathanael on the way and finds him sitting under a fig tree repairing his fishing gear, he says to him with great fervor: ‘Brother, I have been looking for you with my eyes along this now quite lengthy road, and I am glad with all my heart to have found you. For look, we have found the One about whom Moses wrote in the law, and the prophets: it really is Jesus, Joseph’s son from Nazareth!’
John 1:46. Nathanael said to him: ‘What good can come from Nazareth?’ Philip then says: ‘Come and see for yourself!’
Nathanael becomes almost a little indignant and says: ‘Who knows that wretched backwater, Nazareth! What good could possibly come from that place? And the Messiah—as is, in a sense, self-evident—least of all!’ But Philip says: ‘I know very well that you have always opposed me in this matter, although I have set out my reasons to you a hundred times. But come now and see for yourself, and you will say yourself that I was entirely right.’
Nathanael rises thoughtfully and says: ‘Brother, that would be a wonder of wonders! For the rabble of Nazareth is surely the worst in the whole world. Can you not do whatever you like with a piece of Roman sheet metal? There has long been no faith in that backwater, neither in Moses nor in the prophets. In short, you can make whatever you like of a Nazarene; indeed, it has long become a proverb to say: This person or that is even worse than a Nazarene! And you say that the Messiah, to whom you want to lead me so that I may see Him, comes from there? Well, well, nothing is impossible with God! We shall see.’
John 1:47. When Jesus sees Nathanael coming toward Him, He says aloud about him: ‘Look, a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit!’
With these words Nathanael goes with Philip to Me. In the meantime I had taken a little rest about a hundred paces from the place. When they are already near Me, I said aloud: ‘Look, a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit!’
John 1:48. Nathanael says to Him: ‘How do You know me?’ Jesus answers him: ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’
Nathanael is greatly astonished at this entirely true statement that comes to him aloud from My mouth, and immediately asks: ‘How do You know me, that You can say such things about me? Only God and I can know my inner self, yet I have never been a boaster or a public herald of my virtues. How, then, do You know what I am like?’ I look at him and say: ‘Even before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you!’
John 1:49. Nathanael answers Jesus: ‘Rabbi, You are truly the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’
My statement about him astonishes Nathanael beyond measure, and, moved through and through in his heart, he immediately says: ‘Master, quite apart from Your being a Nazarene, You are nevertheless truly the Son of God. Yes, You are unquestionably the King of Israel awaited so long and so eagerly, who will deliver His people from the claws of their enemies! O Nazareth, O Nazareth, how small you were, and how great you will now become! You, the last, will be raised to first place! O Lord, how quickly You gave me faith! How is it that every doubt has left me and I now believe in all fullness that You are the promised Messiah?’
John 1:50. Jesus answers Nathanael: ‘You believe because I told you: I saw you under the fig tree (before Philip called you). (But I tell you:) You will see greater things than this!’
To this question from Nathanael, I first answered as the present verse states. I thereby show Nathanael that he now indeed believes I am the promised Messiah, but that he is compelled to this faith by the omniscience he has discovered in Me, which can exist only in God. I also add that he will see greater things later on. By this I mean to tell him: You now believe through a miracle; later, however, you will believe freely.
John 1:51. Jesus goes on to say to him: ‘Truly, truly, I tell you: From now on you will see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’
And truly, truly, I tell you: From now on you will see all the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. This means: When you later attain from Me the rebirth of your spirit, the gates of life will be opened. Then, yourselves having become angels, you will see those very human beings who have been made angels by Me in rebirth, and thus in these angels also made children of God, passing upward from death to eternal life. Conversely, you will also see many primordially created angelic spirits descending from all the heavens to Me, the Lord of all life, and there stepping into My footsteps, those of the Son of Man, following the example and testimony.
This, then, is a true understanding of the first chapter. But let no one therefore believe that the explanation given here already exhausts everything. Oh no, it does not! Rather, this gift is a practical guide by which anyone of good will can be led into many depths of divine wisdom and there see and recognize many meanings concerning life in each individual verse. For all this, as already stated, this gift is a true principal guideline by which everything can be measured and judged.