Philip, in our gospel today, tells Nathanael that the long-awaited Messiah, the one “about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote,” is from Nazareth. Nathanael rejects that out of hand with his sarcastic question, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” We don’t know what his prejudice concerning Nazareth stems from—perhaps it is its small size, or its working class image, or some other irrelevant difference from Nathanael’s background. How like him we often are! We tend not to give the time of day to folks who are different from us in some way. Our preconceived notions blind us to the truth of God’s way.

Fortunately, Nathanael was able to move past his prejudice and, perhaps out of curiosity or out of respect for or trust in Philip, to accept his friend’s invitation to check out Jesus. His life was changed forever. He is a good model for us to risk the security of our certainties, to recognize that God is always stretching us beyond the limits of our comfort zones to discover the truth of divine love appearing where we least expect it.

It might be a good time for each of us to pause and take a good look at our own prejudices and certainties, to see where we might be ignoring opportunities right in front of us to love our neighbors, regardless of how unlovable we may consider them to be. We too could be changed forever.