43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:43-51 – English Standard Version)
When you introduce Jesus to someone and you receive a negative response, how would you react? Philip found Nathanael and excitingly told him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote”. Nathanael’s first reaction was, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” When someone says something negative about our faith, we may easily become defensive. We may try to change the person’s way of thinking or we just simply shut up. How did Philip respond? “Come and see”. These were the only words that Philip said. As a witness of Jesus, our job is to invite people to “come and see”. Our goal is to invite people to meet Jesus directly and we have to understand that people can meet Jesus in many different ways. People can meet Jesus through the words of God, struggles, life changing stories … When we bring people to Jesus, Jesus can do a much better job in showing them the Way. Our burden is not to convince people to believe, but invite them to meet Jesus.
Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
