Bartholomew’s feast day was officially yesterday, but I’ve transferred it to today, for our weekly Eucharist this evening. This member of the Twelve is identified as Bartholomew in Matthew, Mark and Luke. John’s Gospel does not mention him. But the name literally means “Son of Tolmai.” So it is likely that he went by another name. And in chap. 1, John identifies a “Nathanael” as an early member of the Twelve, but who is not named in the first three gospels. Thus, most scholars conclude that Bartholomew and Nathanael are the same person.
It was Nathanael, stepped in the prophecies of Israel, who recognized that the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem. So, when Philip said, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph,” Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But when he saw Jesus from a distance, it was Jesus who saw through to Nathanael’s heart and said, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” (John 1:43-51)
The Gospel reading for Bartholomew focuses on Jesus’s promise to the Twelve that they will “sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:30). Certainly John’s Gospel presents Nathanael as a man focused on the redemption of the nation of Israel. And yet, there are reports from the earliest Christian traditions that Bartholomew got as far as India in his preaching of the Gospel, and eventually was martyred in modern-day Armenia on the southern border with Russia. Jesus promised him that he would see things that would expand his vision far beyond national vindication.
If the tradition is correct, then this true son of Israel came to understand that all were sons of God in Christ Jesus, and he lived out that vision to the end of his physical life. Thus it is always with God, expanding our vision of what it means to be saved, and just who is meant to be saved.
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