In this world there are many titles people place on us. Some good, some not so good. Like it or not, the way people categorize us both publicly and privately can tend to affect our self confidence and belief in what we are or or not capable of.
Jesus knew that his disciples, the 12 people on this earth closest to him, would face all kinds of ridicule in the course of being his follower. These men needed to be strong, they needed to be steadfast, they needed to be confident in who they were and what they knew.
In John 1:40-47 Simon, Philip, and Nathanael become followers of Jesus. Simon was just a fisherman and the brother of Andrew who had become a Christ-follower just a day earlier. Upon meeting Simon, Jesus says:
Your name is Simon, son of John- but you will be called Cephas (Peter).”
Jesus makes it clear- I know who you are in the context of your world. You are Simon, you are John’s son, you are a fisherman. I know this is how the world sees you. But I see more. I call you “Cephas” (the aramaic word for “rock”), or as we know it better, “Peter” (the greek word with the same meaning).
When Jesus met Nathanael we see the same type of exchange. He greets Nathanael with these words:
Now here is a genuine son of Israel- a man of complete integrity”
Jesus had the ability to look beyond the natural, to see beyond the facts, and see to the heart and character of His followers. Not only did he just see it and think to himself, “this is a good guy, I think I will let him hang out with me.”, but he called it out.
He said to Peter- I see you- and you are not just some fisherman. I see who you really are, all your potential, what you were created to be. YOU, my friend, are a rock.
He said to Nathanael- I see you- I see that you have strong character, you are a man of integrity, and I need someone like that on my team.
Have you ever recognized a quality in someone before they’ve seen it in themselves? Have you seen the way their face lights up when someone calls forth their strength of character? When this happens, your words become powerful. Sometimes these qualities may have been lying dormant within them, but when someone recognizes them and calls them out it is like a breath of life to them, jump starting them and activating them to the person God has created them to be.
Peter’s life may have been much different if Jesus had just looked at him as Simon the fisherman, rather than looking deeper.
How easy is it just to settle for what we see in the natural when we look at those we encounter. How much more life giving would it be if we looked a little deeper and chose to see others the way Jesus saw Peter and Nathanael- if we said to others, I know this is what it looks like at face value,
but I see so much more…
