When I read the Bible, I am often struck by what a personal God we worship. He hears us. He sees us. He loves us. He knows exactly what we need to draw us to Himself. 

When God spoke to the Canaanite woman, Hagar, by the well in the desert, He gave her a promise, and she gave Him a name: El Roi – “You are the God who sees me.” (Genesis 16:13 NLT)

When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at a different well, she was at first skeptical about him, until he told of things in her past that no stranger should have known. She walked away evangelizing to her whole town, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” (John 4:29 ESV) 

When Jesus called Nathanael the Israelite, saying “I saw you under the fig tree”, Nathanael went from incredulous skepticism to utter belief, proclaiming “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:49 ESV)

Why? What happened under the fig tree that would lead to such a drastic change? What did Jesus see?

Can Anything Good Come From Nazareth?

At this point in the story, Jesus had just begun his earthly ministry. He had been baptized by John, who had declared “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world…..this is the Son of God” (John 1:29, 34 ESV), and Jesus was beginning to call the twelve disciples. 

He called the man named Philip, who immediately went to find his friend: Nathanael. 

Philip asserts, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” (John 1:46 ESV) 

Cue Nathanael: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” 

Needless to say, Nathanael was, at this moment, unimpressed and unconvinced. Why would the One of whom the whole Old Testament spoke, the One who was supposed to be greater than Moses, come from a little podunk town almost 60 miles from Jerusalem? 

(Side note: I wonder what he would have thought in that moment if he knew Jesus had also been born in manger.)

But when this cynical young man actually meets the Nazarene, everything changes. 

Fig Trees and Fig Leaves

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 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.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” – John 1:47-49 ESV

Again, what happened under the fig tree that this moment was so powerful? And why does Jesus say Nathanael is an Israelite without deceit? 

The short answer is we don’t know for sure. Scripture is not explicit here, but we can make some good guesses based on the context. Our first clue is the type of tree.  

Fig trees come up over and over again in scripture, and are often used as a literal object in the biblical story, as well as a symbolic literary theme of our standing before God. I have written about fig trees before and their significance in scripture.  (Read Here) 

Jesus uses fig trees a few times in his teachings: once in Luke 13:6-9 in the parable of the fig tree, and once in the cursing of the fig tree in Mark 11:12-25. Both times, Jesus is making the point that a tree (person) that does not produce proper fruit at the proper time will be destroyed; that the fruit produced by the tree (person) is a sign of their standing before God. 

The first time fig trees appear in Scripture is in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve stretched out their hands to eat the forbidden fruit (not necessarily figs) of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They wanted to be like God, and took for themselves what he had prohibited. Because of this, sin and death entered the world. The man and woman realized they were naked and, feeling shame for the first time, sewed together leaves to make clothes. Not just any leaves.

The Bible is specific: fig leaves. 

“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:7-8 ESV)

Already, humanity was attempting to undo what was done; trying to save themselves from the work of their hands by the work of their hands. But the fig leaves they had sewn together for themselves would not protect them. In fact, we see that they still felt naked. 

“But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’”
(Genesis 3:9 -10 ESV)

The fact that Nathanael was specifically sitting under this same type of tree should perk up our literary ears to the possibility that something more may be happening here. 

Psalm 32: In Whom There Is No Deceit

The phrase Jesus uses, “An Israelite in whom there is no deceit” gives us another clue.  

This wording is used a handful of times in scripture: to describe Jesus (1 Peter 2:22 while quoting Isaiah 53:9), to describe the remnant of Israel (Zeccariah 3:13), and once more in Psalm 32. 

Psalm 32 is an incredible chapter of the Bible. It is a Psalm of David, likely written after he had Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, murdered in the battlefield to cover up his own sin.  It is a humble picture of what happened when David confessed his sin to God:

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
    whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
    and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
    my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

I acknowledged my sin to you,
    and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
    and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. 

Psalm 32:1-5

David had felt the heavy hand of godly sorrow for his sin and was overwhelmed by the weight of it. He had laid in bed restless and guilty, probably trying to ignore the thoughts pressing in without success. He had tried to stay silent before God and hid, as man has tried to do since Adam in his fig leaves hid in the garden. 

After a time, David comes before God and acknowledges his sin.  

Here I am. Here is what I have done. I lay all my sin and shame out before you. I hide nothing from you. I acknowledge my sin to you and don’t try to cover it up.

And God forgave him. God counts no iniquity against him. 

He was honest with God and now, he is called one “in whose spirit there is no deceit” and “one whose transgression is forgiven.”

Because Jesus also declares that Nathanael is one “in whom there is no deceit”, I wonder if, under that fig tree, Nathanael had done what David had done in this Psalm : confessed his sin to God.

Nathanael Under the Fig Tree

“Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

You are one whose sins are forgiven.

“How do you know me?” Nathanael asks. 

If Jesus is indeed quoting Psalm 32 here, then this sequence reminds me of when Jesus healed the paralytic in Mark. The man’s friends had brought him to Jesus through the roof of a house because there was no room for them in the crowd. They lowered him down on a mat to be healed. Jesus looked at the man and told him that his sins were forgiven. The Pharisees look on incredulously.

“Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone” Mark 2:7

Jesus responds with a supernatural act: 

“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!” -Mark 2:10-12

The paracytic walked away with two gifts: his legs restored, but even more than that, knowledge that his sins were forgiven. He could stand before the throne of God with confidence, and he would know it every time he took a step on his own two feet. 

I wonder if this is what Jesus was doing for Nathanael: giving him evidence that his sins were indeed washed clean by speaking to him of something only God would know: 

“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” (John 1:48)

Whatever it was that Jesus meant, what he said to Nathanael cut straight to his heart. The one whom Jesus has declared without deceit, begins to declare the Truth. 

“Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!“

He affirmed what Philip had said: Jesus was the long awaited Messiah that had been foretold by Moses and all the prophets throughout the Old Testament. 

Even more than that, he affirmed what John the Baptist had said earlier in the chapter: 

That Jesus was the Son of God – the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world (John 1:29, 1:34)

I guess something good can come from Nazareth. 

What We Know

Whether this confession of sin and forgiveness is the subtext of what is passing between Jesus and Nathanael or not, we know that Psalm 32 was for Nathanael, and for every disciple of Jesus who has ever held deceit in our heart and tried to hide our sin and shame from God.  

We know that Jesus is the only person ever “who committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22)

We know that Jesus “bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

We know that Jesus “has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” (Mark 2:10)

We know that “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1John 1:8)

We know that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

We know that if we sit under the proverbial fig tree and, instead of attempting to hide and cover ourselves with the fig leaves of our own work as Adam and Eve, if we lay it all bare before God and trust in him as David did, he will not turn his back on us. 

Because he didn’t leave Adam and Eve in their fig leaves. He called them and He clothed them. 

“And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” Genesis 3:21

He does the same for us. But this time, it was not an animal who would be sacrificed, but the Son of God himself was the one who would die to make a covering for the sin of man. 

“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” Galatians 3:27 (NASB)

Thank you God, that you see us under our fig trees, and by our wells and anywhere else from where we may cry out to you. Help us to see ourselves rightly; to not deceive ourselves but to come to you with honestly and humility. Thank you that you forgive us every time, that we can be ones without deceit and without sin, taking on the righteousness given to us in Christ. Thank you that you have given us new clothes; spotless robes made by your hands to replace the fig leaves we have tried to piece together with ours. 

And thank you Jesus, that we may know and be known by you, El Roi, the God who sees, the Nazarene, the Son of God and the King of Israel.

Next Steps:

1. What are times when you have felt seen by God? Has God ever used you to help others feel seen? 

2. Is there a sin you are afraid to confess to God? Do you believe that God will forgive you? 

3. Read all of John 1. How does the context of John 1 help us to understand this story with Nathanael?

4. The interaction between Jesus and Nathanael does not end here. Jesus tells him that he will see even greater things: “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 1:51.  Read Genesis 28:10-22. How does understanding this connection deepen what Jesus has told Nathanael?