Breaking the Word

Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. "Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is long delayed,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, the servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.  (Mt 24:42-51)

Thieves still enter houses and steal things away. They enter the houses even when they are strongly protected and secured. They enter even the housed of the security men and steal away things. They are still successful in their job of stealing because they know the hour and the time when the master is away or sleeping. They are awake when the master of the house is sleeping.

Servants are appointed to do their work. They are to do their work even when the master is away. Master does go behind the worker. He has his own work to do or functions to attend. Master is not the supervisor of the workers. Master’s return is not known to the workers. When the master returns he should also find his workers doing their work diligently.

Being awake and aware of what is happening around and doing the work diligently even when the master is away are the qualities expected of workers. These qualities are need especially when the servants do not know about the return of the master or the arrival of the thief. Son of Man does not behave like the thief or the master who does inform about this arrival rather the servants are to be awake and aware of what is happening around and they should be diligent.

Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth." But Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Here is a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him." Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" 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." Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this." And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." (Jn 1:45-51)

Jesus has two types of qualification regarding his identity.  One is based on the scriptures. That is his identity fits well with that of law and the prophets. The other identity is from his place of birth. This is human and a natural identity. The identity from the scriptures is ideal and the human identity is real. These two in fact make Jesus the person he is.

The persons who are able to see the two and see in these two the identity of Jesus become his disciples. There are those who refuse to see the scriptural identity and there are those who do not see the human identity. Nathanael is one of such who find it difficult to see the human reality. The conditions and the situations are so vivid that no good could come out of Nazareth for him.

Jesus reveals his identity to Nathanael. What is revealed is far more important than the scriptural and natural. What is revealed is divinely. This is like in the case of Peter when he said you are the Messiah. Jesus assured him that it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to him rather it was the Father from the heavens. Revelation is complete and ture.