Sitting under a fig tree

 

Sometimes I wish I could be as simple with my faith as Bartholomew.  I would really like to know why Nathaniel (Bartholomew) was convinced that Jesus was “the Son of God, the King of Israel" simply because Jesus said, “I saw you under the fig tree.” (John 1:45-51) 

My impression is that Nathaniel was rather young at the time that this event occurred.  He shows the sort of cynicism that’s usually associated with young men in their late teens at the same time as being rather pure or "free from guile”; again, something associated with a young man trying to be innocent and pure of heart.  I don’t think that Jesus was being sarcastic in what He said, this was just part of the exchange of names and titles at the heart of this particular encounter.

What happened under the fig tree is never going to be completely clear to us on this side of eternity.  From what Jesus says and from Nathaniel's reaction we can infer that it was a very private and personal matter, one in which Nathaniel struggled (and won) in what was primarily a matter of honesty or straightforwardness, maybe of interior fidelity to God's love.  Jesus's next words are a matter of encouragement, a calling of the young man to great deeds.  Jesus will later go on to expand the "angels ascending and descending" to say that "no one has gone up to heaven except the One who has come down from heaven" (John 3:13) and to say "I am the way" (that leads to the Father) (John 14:6).

I think that we too are called to struggle with our devils, especially internally, so as to be pure of heart before God even more than before other people.  We should review our values, our excuses, the things that we wish to hide from, and the things that we repeat to ourselves about our judgments of other people, their motives, why we have trouble with them, etc.  This is the fig tree where we wrestle with ourselves to become truly gentle and loving, without guile.

This year (since March, anyway), I’ve been “sitting under a fig tree” of my own.  I struggle to hold my Christian tongue when I read accounts of people who refuse to wear face masks when in public settings or worse, when they do so only to prove they “are not going to be told what to do.”  I know that instead of being angry and resentful towards them for their callous disregard for others’ well-being, I should be praying for them, but it’s really difficult.  Just when I think I’ve “forgiven those who trespass against me”, something else comes up that causes me to vent less than Christian epithets toward my neighbor.  My struggles are particularly rough in Presidential election years, when the guile or ‘deceit’ flows out of everywhere.  

Jesus praised Nathaniel because there was no deceit in him.    The word deceit is used most often for someone who is being sneaky or treacherous.   A person is outwardly nice but is scheming to take advantage of another.  One of our sins in dealing with others is using them for our purpose rather than for theirs, or better for God’s.

Part of our experience as a member of Christ’s Body is to be an extension of Him.  Hopefully, our self-interest rather than the interest of Christ doesn’t cruelly rob them of His care!  We all have a great need of others to live the Christ-life, but it’s frighteningly easy to turn the loving interest of God into our selfish needs!  Think of how many scams we all get these days on our cell phones.   “You’re the lucky winner! We picked your name to give you $1,000 dollars.  Just give us your credit card number so we can send it to your account!”

 In less obvious ways we’re not aware of how much we use others for our own purposes with no or little care for their interests.  Jesus took on terrible sufferings in His human nature to give the incredible gift of eternal life.  He couldn’t be touched by remaining with His Divine nature alone.  Only when He took on our human nature could He experience the pain of unselfish giving!  What a lesson the crucified Jesus gives us!  “You shall love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).   To love like Jesus is to love others without self-interest.  We don’t love just so we look good to others.  We don’t love others so they can be a help to our personal plans.

When we live without deceit and without being sneaky, we love like Jesus on the cross. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

As I reflect on this today, I realize that we should be grateful for the struggles we endure, because internal struggle opens the door to the Lord, letting Him call us out from under our own fig trees to reveal Himself to us as our Way to God.