The below is from Thomas Hopko’s 40 day devotional book ‘The Winter Pascha’, from the second meditation, on ‘come and see’:

The story (John 1:43-51) is typical of St John’s gospel. The people first encounter the man “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” The meet Him as a man, the one “of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote.” then they go further. What they come to see is that this man is not merely the promised prophet and teacher; He is the Anointed, the Christ, the Messiah, the King of Israel. He is the Son of God. Indeed He is God Himself in human form.

The pattern in St John’s gospel is always the same. We see it in the narratives of the paralytic at the pool, the Samaritan woman at the well, the boy born blind, the encounter of Martha and Mary with Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus. The sequence of events is identical. It is a necessary sequence, not only historically, but spiritually and mystically.

We must first come to see Jesus the man. We must come to know Him as a concrete human being, a Jew, as rabbi, a prophet. We must meet Him as Mary’s child, the carpenter’s son, the Nazarene. Then, in this encounter, when our eyes are open and our hearts are pure, we can come to see “greater things.” We can come to know Him not simply as a teacher, but the Teacher, not simply as a prophet, but the Prophet. We can come to know Him not merely as a son of man, but as the Son of man foretold by the prophet Daniel (Dan. 7:13-14). We can come to see Him not simply as a son of God, but as the Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages. We can come to recognize Him as God’s Word in human flesh as God’s Image in human form (Heb. 1; Jn 1:17-18). And finally, we can come to see Him as God Himself, not the Father, but the Father’s Son, divine with the Father’s own divinity, sent into the world for its salvation.

The first step on the way of the Winter Pascha is the encounter with the man Jesus. We are invited with Philip and the disciples to “come and see.” . . .