Under the Fig Tree

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A meditation with John 1 verses 43-51 using breath work, body awareness, and imaginative contemplation.

This is our seventh and final meditation in the remarkable chapter one in the book of John. The story opens with the wide, sweeping lens on the dawn of time as the word, the light births all of creation into being. John melts into the poetic “Word became flesh” (v14) and “from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace” (v16) and then we are into John the Baptist’s sermons at the Jordan where he points to Jesus as Messiah to swelling crowds and investigative Levites, always testifying “Behold! The Lamb of God” (v35). The focus of the lens become much more granular then, as we now see Jesus in his very ordinary human life, being asked “where are you staying?” (v38). And now, with all the power and energy of the first 3/4 of the chapter setting the stage, ordinary people are meeting Jesus in their ordinary lives and being invited to “Come and see” (v39, 46) and responding in a number of ways to this person who sees and ignites their deepest souls.

In today’s meditation, Jesus leaves the Jordan to travel back up to the Galilee, and finds Philip (from the same city of fishermen and farmers as Andrew and Simon Peter). Philip is immediately compelled to follow Jesus and invite his friends, too, to come and see. Nathaniel is a little hesitant until Jesus accurately sees and names his heart, his spirit.

Jesus’ words close the chapter with a camera pan back out to the bigger, wider narrative “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹ And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you,^[o] you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

I invite you to engage with these verses as an imaginative contemplation, becoming present to the text and the story in your imagination and putting yourself in the scene.

Blessings, always, as you pray.

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.

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All music by Pete Hatch.