"And Nathanael said to him, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"'
John 1:46 NKJV
This was quite a detrimental thing to say - judgemental and discriminatory. But in Nathanael's opinion, it was not good and he was appalled. At that time, Nazareth had a bad reputation, and anyway, the Messiah was supposed to be born in Bethlehem not this place. He was right in one way, the Messiah was born in Bethlehem but he neglected to see that He was actually brought up in Nazareth.
After Philip encouraged him to 'Come and see'. He went with him. Jesus saw him coming and spoke into his heart, things that only Nathanael knew, and he was convinced and said, 'Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel' v49. What a difference Jesus can make in a person's life. We may struggle to convince someone that Jesus is alive but, the Holy Spirit is the No 1 evangelist. He turned Nathanael's mood from deflated to abounding.
What about Thomas? He was known as The Doubter. But this was a rather unfair label to give him. He was heroic. When Jesus was preparing to go to Lazarus after he had died, The disciples knew it would be a risky thing to: 'go and wake him up' John 11:11. But Thomas replied in v16, 'Let us also go, that we may die with Him.' There was nothing about Thomas that could be said he was a doubting coward. He was sound and totally for Jesus.
However, in John 20:25-28, we read That Thomas refused to believe the disciples when he was told that they had seen Jesus. 'Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.' v25. Again, Jesus changed this situation when He came to Thomas and said, 'Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing' John 20:27. Jesus once again changed a doubting mood into a believing one.
This all goes to show that we, as believers, can be tough one minute and deflated the next. We have moments of doubt but, we try to hide this and be courageous. However, Jesus knows us through and through. Do you have doubts about what Jesus can and cannot do? Do you have moody sessions. where you refuse to believe that a fellow Christian is genuine? Do you doubt their integrity? Do you just become moody? You're not alone; we all have times such as this; so let us be grateful that Jesus still loves us.
Copyright 2022 Grahame Howard.
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