Before Abraham Was, I AM (John 8:58)

"Before Abraham was, I am!" (John 8:58)

In the book of Exodus, God revealed himself to Moses, as “I AM WHO AM. This is what you shall tell the Israelites. I AM sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14). In today’s Gospel Jesus makes it perfectly clear when he uses the words, “I AM.” Jesus is God!

Jesus said to the group of believers, “Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word he shall never see death.” Never has a man spoken like this man. No prophet of God ever said “I say to you” and “If you keep my word”. The prophets spoke for God. Jesus spoke as God. Jesus meant spiritual death, which permanently strikes the soul but also excludes the body from a glorious resurrection. Adherence to the word of Christ is eternal life. The word of God convicts. It upsets. It divides. It destroys. It also builds up. It gives life. It refreshes. It renews. It is hope, as Hebrews 4:12 tells us: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

What follows is stupendous. Jesus said, “Abraham your father rejoiced in the hope and desire of seeing my day. He saw it and was glad.” The day is the whole time of the Incarnation rather than any single day. Many Fathers of the Church consider it to be, the apparitions of the Logos or in the joy and consolation of the birth of Isaac, the child of promise. However, for the Jews this was nothing more than the words of an eccentric man who could have been demon possessed. He is around 30 years old, and claims that he knew Abraham. The Jews were furious!

Then Jesus goes on to say, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” Jesus was asserting his divinity. He was making himself God. In the eyes of the Jews, it was blasphemy and this was a crime punishable by stoning.

When they picked up stones to stone him, Jesus “hid himself” by mingling with the crowd and left the temple. In his humanity, the Godhead in Jesus, which he has just spoken about, was largely concealed except to those with the eyes of faith. St Ignatius Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises speaks of the divinity being hidden during the terrible hours of the Passion. St Paul in his Letter to the Philippians speaks of Jesus “emptying” himself and taking the form of a slave.

The old Jewish custom that Jesus is not God lives on in some of our modern Christians. If you are in that crowd that doubt the divinity of Christ, pray this Lent that Jesus may enlighten you to see the great, “I AM” he is.

“Lord Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God and that you gave your life as a ransom for me. Thank you for paying my sin debt in full.”