Tossing Aside the Crowns
Spruce Lake at the time featured a few different programs. They had a.) the Wilderness Camp, where I was a summer-long counselor, b.) Expedition, where campers boated, rock-climbed, and camped for a week, and c.) Outpost, which was a site near the Wilderness Camp that stripped its adventurers down to the essentials. They were given a teepee to sleep in and a daily ration of drinking water and food. But that was it.
I was semi-comfortable in my position as Wilderness Camp counselor. I slept in tents with spiders on the ceiling, true (I still shudder about that sometimes), but there was a bathhouse not far distant from our tent platform. I had a foam mat to sleep on. I had running water for brushing teeth and hot showers. I had plumbing.
One memorable week, one of the Outpost counselors needed to go home, and the director asked if I could step into her position for the week at the survival camp.
I agreed with a modicum of dread. I did like my plumbing, showers, and the ability to brush my teeth without extra hassle. I wasn't quite sure what I would find.
I've never forgotten what I found. I had to think of everything I'd never really thought about before. Drinking water was rationed, since we had one container of it to share among the group for the day, so this was divided into what we could drink when we were thirsty, and what we needed to use for brushing teeth. I was shown how to put a small amount in the bottom of my drinking cup and use it to dip my toothbrush in for rinsing. We were advised not to use creek water for this for reasons I didn't want to imagine.
Bathrooms, naturally, did not exist, so shovels were a part of our daily needs as we trekked far outside of camp to dig latrines, and leaves from obliging bushes and trees were an essential service. We did have the option of hiking uphill nearly half a mile to a port-a-john set up in the cleared land where the power-lines ran through, but a.) the half-mile uphill hike and b.) the fact that the john hadn't been emptied all summer made digging our own latrines the more attractive option. Hand-washing took place in the creek, and "clean" became a relative term.
Mealtimes were an intense operation. Thankfully, it wasn't a full-survival camp where we had to shoot and clean our own meat, but we did have to rely on cooking over an open fire, and if a downpour prevented this, we went hungry.
When that week was over, I will never forget the shower I took. It lasted a full forty-five minutes, and I enjoyed every last hot droplet that fell on my head that did not require heating over a fire. The packed-on dirt from the week sloughed away and swished down the drain, never to be seen again. My teeth and mouth tasted minty-fresh and fully-rinsed for the first time all week (there wasn't enough water in my ration to rinse thoroughly at the Outpost, so I learned to spit continually for a while after teeth-brushing). My hair felt clean and light once again after a week of oil, sweat, and mud (it rained a lot that week).
What on earth does this have to with John 1:43-51 where I am today? In a word: Immanuel.
God with us.
In a word: Bethel.
House of God.
More on that in a moment.
Jesus is beginning His ministry. He has just gotten back from a forty-day fast in the wilderness (not recorded in John, but narrated in the other Gospels) where He is tempted three times by Satan, and three times, He shuts the evil one down. Now He's back, and He begins to call His first disciples to follow Him. Yesterday, I wrote about His calling of Peter and Andrew (John, the author of this Gospel, might have been an unnamed participant, as well, but this is not certain).
Today, Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael. Philip, to note, is from the same town as Peter and Andrew, and may have already heard from them about this man Jesus, with whom they had spent the previous day. His curiosity is likely piqued.
When Jesus tells him, "Follow me," Philip jumps at the chance. He finds his friend Nathanael, and says: "We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, and about Whom the prophets also wrote -- Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph!"
Nathanael's response? "Nazareth? Can anything good come from there?"
How often are we so excited to see what the Lord is doing, to see the movement of His hand, to hear the voice of His Holy Spirit in our hearts, and we tell our friends and families about it. In return, we get the lukewarm: Meh. The shrug. Can anything good come from Nazareth?
Can anything good come from Tamara?
Oh Lord, show Who You are!
He does. Philip says: "Come and see." Come see for yourself, oh you of little faith. Don't rely on my own faulty words: He will prove Himself; I don't have to do it for Him.
"When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him: "Here is a true Israelite in whom there is nothing false."
John 2:25 says: "[Jesus] did not needs man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man." He already knows Nathanael's doubts; He looks past those doubts and sees right down to the core of the man's being, and there, He recognizes a sincere desire to know the Truth.
Nathanael asks: "How do you know me?"
Jesus could have said: "Your friend Philip told me about you." He could have said: "I've heard of your reputation." He could have said anything else, but instead He points to His own divine ability to look past appearances and peer into hearts, and He says: "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."
And Nathanael instantly recognizes God in this foreknowledge. He realizes He is not speaking with a heretic, a strawman, or a pretender. He declares: "Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel!"
Jesus takes it to the next level. First, he acknowledges Nathanael's level of belief: "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree." Then He ups the ante: "You shall see greater things than that. I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
Where else in Scripture have we seen this same picture? Oh, that's right, waaaaay back with the patriarchs. Genesis 28:10-19 records the story of Jacob, fleeing from his brother's wrath, making camp for the night. During the course of the night, he has a dream. "He saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it." The Lord is standing at the head of that ladder, and He reiterates to Jacob the covenant He has promised to Abraham and to Isaac -- that He will make Jacob into a great nation. He promises: "I am with you, and will watch over you wherever you go..."
Jacob calls that place Bethel, which means: "House of God." The dwelling place of the Lord. The place where He lives. This place is Jacob's Bethel, where he has a chance to commune with God, and God with him. It is a meeting place.
God... with us.
God... with us.
Revelation 4:9-11 gives us a portion of the greatest revelation ever shown to a man: a glimpse of times to come, a peek into the very throne room of heaven. "Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to Him who sits on the throne and Who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne, and say: 'You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being."
Those elders lay their crowns before the Lord. They give up their own glory in reverence to the Father, in adulation of the Ancient of Days, the Great Judge, and they turn over every right, every bit of their own portion, to the greater One. They strip themselves of their own dignity in order to surrender their crowns, their rights, to God Himself.
What does Nathanael see when He recognizes Jesus as the Son of God, the King of Israel?
He sees God... with him. He sees Immanuel.
He sees the great God of heaven, Who has put aside all the glory due His name, and Who enters the privations of human existence.
Nathanael gets the opportunity to walk with Jesus through three years of ministry, and in that time, he gets to see Jesus at just about every human level possible: Bad breath. Perspiration. Dirty feet. Exhaustion. Plumbing.
A true casting of His crown, so that He might reach out to us on the only level where we can truly see Him.
God... with us. Immanuel.
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