Ever hear of those infamous love stories in which someone looks at another person and immediately, they seem to recognize each other. We sometimes call this seeing your “soul mate.” Anyone ever have that happen to them?  Perhaps some of you are still married to your “soul mate” –that person who just instinctively “gets you,” “knows you,” “and deeply loves you.”

Some say it’s the eyes, that when you look into someone’s eyes, you can see into their soul. Others believe, it is some kind of physical pheromone action, or a deep-lying emotional connection. Still others believe it is an intuitive spiritual connection that goes beyond usual recognition.

Whatever it is, those kinds of encounters are real.

We also however have those kinds of encounters in our relationship with God, with Jesus. Sometimes, when we are deep in prayer, or when we are alone and our spirit is open and humble before God, we can truly feel the Holy Spirit with us, feel Jesus’ presence around us. I know I’ve heard many people in hospitals and other facilities tell me just that.

While we humans love our logic, our rationality, and our cut and dry evidential facts, none of us can deny that we also have a highly intuitive side, a side that “knows” things that are not based in fact or proofs or logic.

When we fall in love. When we pick up the phone to call someone just as they were thinking of us. When we have a sense of something wrong and then hear the news. When we look at someone and get a feeling about them. Although animals may have this sense to a greater extent, we humans have it too. And for many, it guides their lives.

John Wesley would say that we can’t be a true Christian without that relational, intuitive, spiritual encounter with Jesus that “warms our hearts” and “changes our lives.” This kind of “feeling” is the basis for conversion.

Jesus had the ability to see into people’s hearts. He is the “sword” of discernment,” the “stumbling stone” that will reveal the hearts of many, the eye of God who can see our very souls. But a good rabbi, a good student of the Torah, in the Jewish tradition, could also “know” God and recognize God on this very spiritual level.

The Jewish faith asserts that the Torah is like a “Tree of Knowledge” for those who study it. It produces the fruit of new teachings generation after generation. Those who studied the Torah, the source of redemption, were said to be “sitting under the fig tree.” To “sit under a fig tree” meant to sit under the shade of a Rabbi’s teaching, enjoying the “sweet” fruit of his instruction and wisdom and that of the Torah (the Tree of Knowledge).[1]

In Jesus’ day, there were those who believed in the Messiah and in the coming eschaton, and those who did not. Those who did put faith in seeing the “signs,” and in discerning God’s presence not only with the mind but with the intuitive heart. Jesus recognizes Nathanael as one of “those” students of the Torah, one of the “true” Israelites who are waiting for the Messiah.

In the scripture we read today, we see Philip, excited to introduce Jesus to his friend, or perhaps fellow student, Nathanael. Philip says, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

Nathaniel responds initially with a sarcastic skepticism, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

But Philip tells him to “come and see.” As Nathaniel approaches Jesus however, something happens. In their “encounter,” Jesus sees who Nathaniel is, and Nathanael “recognizes” Jesus and who HE is. This is a kind of “God” encounter.

In saying, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit (or pretense)!” it seems that they are exchanging a kind of inside joke –a knowledge that both of them will understand. Nathanael asks, “Where did you get to know me?”  Or we might ask, “Where do you know me from?” Or better, “How do you know my heart, what I believe, who I am?”

Jesus replies, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Jesus has already recognized his ability for knowledge, the kind of Jewish student he is, what he is studying and believes in, and his ability to recognize and believe in the Messiah and the time to come. He has discerned his heart.

Nathanael then replies, “Rabbi, you are the King of Israel, the Son of God!” He has recognized the sign that he has been preparing himself to recognize in his studies for years. His mind and heart were prepared not just to see the law or words on a page, but to see the “Messiah” and to recognize who He is.

Jesus ends the encounter by telling Nathanael that he will see even greater things than these….”heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” Jesus has described himself as Jacob’s ladder, the bridge between heaven and earth, between God and mankind, who will usher in the new age to come.

This moment of recognition is important.

Jesus “knows” Nathanael by the revealing of his heart. Nathanael recognizes Jesus by the “encounter” of Jesus seeing who He is. This kind of “reflection” of knowledge is the same way we “know” God, not by just book learning, but in a very personal, experiential, knowing kind of way.

When we pray, when we meditate on scripture, when we take Holy Communion, in all of the times that John Wesley called the “means of grace,” we come into holy encounter with Jesus. If you open up your heart and soul to Him, you will feel His presence, and as you stand before Jesus, knowing that He sees you in your sin and in your fault and in your goodness and in your humanness, as He sees and discerns the deepest reaches of your heart, you will also know and recognize Him.

This kind of “recognition” is the essence of faith. No matter how many scriptural passages you can memorize, no matter how many times you come to church, no matter how many hymns you sing or committees you are on, it may increase your book “knowledge” of God, but it won’t increase your faith or your personal “knowing” of God. Only in a close encounter with God, a moment of recognition of Jesus, will your heart be forever and inexplicably changed.

This is what John Wesley knew when his heart was strangely warmed. It’s what countless Methodists knew when they underwent monumental conversions that led to permanent and miraculous life changes. It’s what the couple felt after their encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. It’s what Nathanael felt when he encountered Jesus that day. And it’s what truly will change your life if you let Jesus in and allow Him to discern your life, and touch you, heart and soul.

Today, this week, as you go about your life, take some extra time apart to spend with Jesus. I pray that your close encounters with the Lord our God will bring much fruit and goodness and blessings and joy to your life and those around you.