DEVOTION//Shrek: A picture of Jesus

Nathanael said to [Philip], “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46).

Shrek at 20

Shrek has turned twenty. The film won an Academy Award for best-animated feature. Three additional full-length films have been made. The franchising of Shrek-related merchandise has surpassed $2 billion. The ogre shows up in countless memes and is quoted in countless conversations.

DreamWorks produced the film, but no one thought it would be a hit. “Getting sent to Shrek felt like being sent to Siberia,” the director Vicky Jenson said.

Today, only the top filmmakers on a Shrek film.

Jesus at 30

Like Dreamworks' low hopes for Shrek, Nathanael had low expectations for Jesus. Nathanael thought there was no possibility Jesus could be the Messiah.

"Nazareth," he sneered. "Nazareth? Are you kidding me? Backwoods Nazareth? It's stuck in an insignificant valley in the hills above the broad and fertile Jezreel Valley. And the people who live there are uneducated bumpkins. 'Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?'"

Nathanael soon found out what good could come from Nazareth. When Philip introduced them, the Messiah-from-Nazareth stunned him by saying, "Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

Doubting Nathanael was stunned. No one could know what went on under that fig tree. He couldn't help but exclaim, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

The King of Israel

Nathanael would see greater evidence than realizing Jesus knew a secret about him. He would witness miracles only God could do. He would see Old Testament prophecy after prophecy fulfilled in Jesus. He would be captivated by Jesus' life-transforming teaching. He would witness Jesus' sin-forgiving death and victory-guaranteeing resurrection and ascension.

The man Nathanael wrote off as an ineffectual messiah-want-to-be turned out to be the Messiah the world waited for since sin ruined it. He is the one "the Father has sent … to be the Savior of the world" (1 John 4:14). He has proven he is "Lord of Lords and King of Kings" (Revelation 17:14). He is the one who humbled himself but now has a name that is above every name (Philippians 2:9).

Shrek's stunning success nonplussed its Dreamworks creators. Jesus' success brings Nathanaels of all eras to their knees in awe and praise.

Say it with me, "You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”