Under the Fig Tree
War broke out in
heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its
angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place
for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the
Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and
its angels were thrown down with it.
Revelation 7:10-12
Jesus answered and
said to him, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig
tree." Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you
are the King of Israel." John
1:48B-49
Piety
Life has a stark tone during wartime. And the mood changes
when one has powerful allies. (@frmattfish)
Study
When I was a child, there was always lots of talk about angels
(especially guardian angels) and the “Devil.” In learning about right and
wrong, good guys and bad guys, having opposites was easy to understand. Kierkegaard
reminds me of the tyranny of the Either/Or. Even one of our most famous comics
of the 1960’s popularized the phrase, “The Devil made me do it.”
Good guys. Bad
guys. White hats. Black hats. Those were the lessons of a
child. However, adult life is not as
simple as the Storm Troopers and the Rebel Alliance squaring off to conquer the
Death Star. Seeing what is good and choosing it can be easy. Nathaniel saw what is good and shows his
faith. Our Good News from John makes it appear that we can (like Nathaniel) choose
correctly. However, Revelation reminds
us that, in reality, forces are out there trying to “deceive the whole world.”
"Enraged
at her escape, the dragon went off to make war on the rest of her
offspring." (Rev 12)
Those evil tendencies (forces) were not conquered in this
life by humans. They were conquered when the Angels squared off against the
Demons and expelled them from heaven. Where
did the expelled demons go? Hell? Hades? Purgatory? All of the above. However, they also were “thrown down to earth”
where they took up residence to tempt every one of us – including Jesus – in our
daily struggles.
How did the skeptical Nathaniel know that Jesus was…well,
Jesus? He was already suspecting something
questionable because Jesus was from Nazareth, not Bethlehem as expected from
his study. Maybe today that would be like expecting Jesus to come from Like
someone coming from North Caldwell, New Jersey as a neighbor to Tony Soprano.
The fig tree reference is the clue. The term "under
the fig tree" is an ancient Jewish idiom[i]
that means studying the messianic
prophecies. The idiom stems from
Micah 4:4, in a passage describing the future messianic kingdom: “They shall
all sit under their own vines, under their own fig trees, undisturbed; for the
LORD of hosts has spoken.”
When Jesus spoke to Nathaniel, he knew that only the
Messiah could know that about Him without being told, which is why he
acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah. No
Demons could interfere with that direct encounter!
Action
When war breaks out on earth, the innocent die. Lexington and Concord. Sumter and Gettysburg. Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Khe Sahn and Saigon. Basra and Baghdad. Anywhere and everywhere. When
war breaks out in heaven, look out.
For me, the message today is “let us emulate the peace-seeking,
faithful follower Nathaniel.” Let us
look for the good and when we find it in Jesus, follow it.
“Grant that our life on earth may be defended by those [friends,
family members and, yes, angels] who watch over us.”
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