Feast of St. Bartholomew, the
Apostle
Text:
The Rev. Jerry Kistler
St. Stephen’s Reformed
Episcopal Church
“The Saint Who Lost His Skin”
So what’s worth losing your skin for? I don’t ask that question ironically, or with any intended humor, because it was a real question faced by the great martyr we celebrate today. The tradition about St. Bartholomew the Apostle is that he literally lost his skin for the sake of the gospel; he was flayed alive for his conviction that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that He is the one Mediator between God and Man - the one Way God has chosen to come down to us and make His dwelling among us; and the one Way that we can go up to God and live in His presence. Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life - that’s what St. Bartholomew calculated was worth losing his skin for.
We don’t learn a lot about St. Bartholomew from the Bible. As a matter of fact, apart from one very short conversation he has with Jesus, he’s only just mentioned a handful of times in the lists of the apostles that we find in the Gospels and Acts. But one thing we can deduce from those lists is that Bartholomew was not his first name; it was his last name. Very much like Simon bar Jonah – “Simon the son of Jonah” – Bartholomew is a Aramaic surname which literally means “the son of Tolmai,” or “the son of Ptolemy,” if you were to translate it back into the Greek.
So now the obvious question: what was Bartholomew’s first name – his given name? I’m going to tell you. It was Nathanael. How do we know that? Because the two names are used interchangeably in those lists of the Apostles. Sometimes he’s listed as Bartholomew, sometimes as Nathanael. But in that one place where we hear him speak, it’s by his name Nathanael that he’s introduced to us. It’s in the record of his call to be an apostle, and it comes to us from the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
[Read
Now I think for many of us this conversation between Jesus and Nathanael has always seemed a little bit strange and confusing. What Jesus says to Nathanael doesn’t sound to our ears so extraordinary as to elicit what seems like an incredibly credulous response from Nathanael – his great confession that Jesus is the Son of God, the King of Israel. I mean, after all, Jesus only says, “Look, a true Israelite, in whom there’s no deceit,” and, “Before Philip called you, I saw you sitting under the fig tree.” Why would those words evoke such a true-believer’s response out of Nathanael? Have you ever wondered about that?
Well, I believe there’s an inside story going on here – an unspoken conversation inside the conversation, if you will, secret only to Jesus and Nathanael. Sort of like when you and another person have an inside joke running between you that no one else in the group gets. Well, there’s no joke here, but I think there is an inside story. In these strange words that Jesus says to Nathanael, He’s alluding to something only He and Nathanael could possibly know, and that’s what elicits Nathanael’s great confession.
So what is it? What’s the inside story? Well, if it’s secret only to Jesus and Nathanael how could I know? I can’t know for certain. But I’ll venture a guess.
But we have to back up for a second. Remember how Philip approaches Nathanael with the news about Jesus. He says, “We have found the One of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets wrote about – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Philip comes to announce the news to Nathanael as someone whose supreme concern is: What do the Scriptures say? What does the Bible have to say about this? This is a man who knows and believes the Bible, and is searching it out daily to be able to understand it, and to be able to find the One whom the Law and the Prophets were pointing forward to – the Messiah, the King who was coming to deliver His people. Nathanael is a man of the Book, we might say. And so when his good friend Philip comes to him to tell him about Jesus, it’s to tell him that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Scriptures.
I like what John MacArthur says on this point:
“Notice that he didn’t say to him, ‘I found a man who has a wonderful plan for your life.’ He didn’t say, ‘I found a man who will fix your marriage and your personal problems and give your life meaning.’ He didn’t appeal to Nathanael on the basis of how Jesus might make Nathanael’s life better. Philip spoke of Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, because he knew that would pique Nathanael’s interest. Nathanael, as an eager student of the Old Testament, was already a seeker after divine truth” (Twelve Ordinary Men, p.137).
That’s why, when he hears Philip say that the One they’ve
all been looking for was this Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael responds the way he
does: “Can anything good come out of
But to Nathanael’s objection, Philip simply answers, “Come and see.”
And it’s as they’re walking up to Jesus and have almost
reached Him that Jesus makes this somewhat cryptic affirmation of Nathanael:
“Behold, an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.” That’s the first clue to
the inside story. The second is His statement that before Philip called him He
saw him under the fig tree. Well, what do you suppose Nathanael was doing under
the fig tree? What would a man of the Book like Nathanael be spending his
leisure time in the shade doing? Probably reading the
Scriptures. Probably reading and meditating upon and searching out from
the Scriptures the One who was to come. And my guess is he was reading from the
part of the Book of Genesis that deals with life of the man called Jacob –
Jacob, the patriarch of
We remember about Jacob. Jacob was the one whose very name
meant deceiver, and who all his early
life tried to get ahead by lying and conniving, and just generally by being a
real snake-in-the-grass, but then had an encounter with God. Actually he
entered a wrestling match with God, and came away a changed man. Not only was
he a changed man, but God changed his name to reflect his new character. He was
called
We also remember that God had also shown Jacob a spectacular vision – a vision of a stairway rising up from earth into heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. We heard that story just a couple of weeks ago.
Nathanael has been meditating upon these passages, and then
when he comes to Jesus, the first words out of Jesus’ mouth are (if we can
paraphrase a little): “Look, here is a true son of
But Jesus responds, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” In other words, before Philip even came to you to tell you about me, I saw what you doing under the fig tree.” Not that Jesus physically saw him; that’s what’s so astounding to Nathanael. Jesus saw with a supernatural sight what Nathanael was reading in the Scriptures before Philip came to him to announce that they had found the very One He was reading about. This is why Nathaniel cries out, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
Nathaniel’s prejudice is gone. He’s came to see the One Philip had proclaimed, and what he sees is that One who sees right down into His soul. And he’s convinced. He believes. That’s all it takes.
Jesus is somewhat astounding at Nathanael’s faith and says, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” In other word, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!” For “Amen, Amen, I say unto you” – “Verily, verily,” or, ‘Truly, truly, I say unto you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Again it’s a guess, but I believe Jesus is purposefully alluding to that very passage of Scripture Nathanael was just reading. And what He is saying is that He is the true stairway to heaven. He is the link that bridges the gap between heaven and earth created by our sins. He is the one upon whom and through whom there can be any commerce between those two realms. Instead of man building his Towers of Babel, his ziggurats, his pyramids, by which he attempts to climb up to God, God sends His stairway down to man and invites him to be lifted up to Him. Even “Jacob’s Ladder” way back in the book of Genesis points forward to the One who be the Mediator between God and Man.
But notice that Jesus says that they shall see heaven open, and the angels ascending and descending upon
the Son of Man.” When would Jesus
fulfill the vision of Jacob? And when would Nathaniel and the others truly see
the gap between heaven and earth finally bridged? Of course, at the cross, for
it was at the cross that Jesus offered the one sacrifice that could bring us
near to God, the one payment price for reconciliation. And in His resurrection
and Ascension, which the apostles were special witnesses to, He was raised back
up to the Father, that where He is, there we may be also. Jesus Himself said,
“If I am lifted up from the earth, [I ] will draw all
peoples to Myself.” But this He said, says John, signifying by what death He
would die (John
“As to the holy Patriarch
That wondrous dream was given
So seems my Saviour’s cross to me
A ladder up to heaven.”
Nathanael bar Tolmai – Nathanael Bartholomew – had a strong beginning
to his faith. But he had an even stronger end. Of all the apostles, St.
Bartholomew is the greatest witness to me of the truth of the gospel – the
truth that Jesus was Who He said He was; that He died, and that He rose again,
and that He now lives forever to bring us to God, and to give us eternal life –
and that He was the power to do it! Because even, literally, to save his own
skin, Bartholomew did not recant of message that he preached, saying that it
was all a big hoax; he and the other apostles just made the story of Jesus’
resurrection so they could start a new religion and have fame and fortune. None
of them got fame or fortune. Every one of them, except
Who else has the words of eternal life? Who else can offer a
perfect sacrifice for our sins? Who else can raise us up from death, and lift
us up to God?