Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent – March 25, 2010
John 8:51 – 59
“Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death."
At this they exclaimed, "Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?"
Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."
"You are not yet fifty years old," they said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"
"Very truly I tell you," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
Jesus used the words “I am” to refer to himself. The words are especially prominent in John’s Gospel. Jesus is the fulfillment of the “I AM” of the Hebrew Scriptures. At the burning bush in Exodus 3, Moses stood before God and inquired about the identity of the One sending him. The God-voice from the bush said, “I AM that I AM.”
God revealed God’s Self as pure Being, complete Essence. I AM. We may want more information. We may want something more descriptive, something more characteristic of divinity. We yearn for more adjectives, or for labels and categories in which to place God. God, however, resists those labels and that categorization. God is.
Jesus adopted this same sense of who he was. He resisted categories and labels. He was the I AM, Being and Essence.
We haven’t learned from him very well. Modern life is caught up in doing and producing. We are enamored with those who accomplish much, and we wear our busyness as a merit badge.
At its core, the spiritual journey invites us to rediscover who we are, the “I am” at our core. It is a long journey and often very difficult, because who we are is hidden within us, covered by all the things we do and masks we wear. Our “I am” center, though, holds the God-created purpose into which we are invited to live.
As Jesus lived completely and fully his own “I AM,” so we are invited to live fully our “I am.” And we are never more like Jesus than when we live out of our own “I am.”
“Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death."
At this they exclaimed, "Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?"
Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."
"You are not yet fifty years old," they said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"
"Very truly I tell you," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
Jesus used the words “I am” to refer to himself. The words are especially prominent in John’s Gospel. Jesus is the fulfillment of the “I AM” of the Hebrew Scriptures. At the burning bush in Exodus 3, Moses stood before God and inquired about the identity of the One sending him. The God-voice from the bush said, “I AM that I AM.”
God revealed God’s Self as pure Being, complete Essence. I AM. We may want more information. We may want something more descriptive, something more characteristic of divinity. We yearn for more adjectives, or for labels and categories in which to place God. God, however, resists those labels and that categorization. God is.
Jesus adopted this same sense of who he was. He resisted categories and labels. He was the I AM, Being and Essence.
We haven’t learned from him very well. Modern life is caught up in doing and producing. We are enamored with those who accomplish much, and we wear our busyness as a merit badge.
At its core, the spiritual journey invites us to rediscover who we are, the “I am” at our core. It is a long journey and often very difficult, because who we are is hidden within us, covered by all the things we do and masks we wear. Our “I am” center, though, holds the God-created purpose into which we are invited to live.
As Jesus lived completely and fully his own “I AM,” so we are invited to live fully our “I am.” And we are never more like Jesus than when we live out of our own “I am.”
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