Good Morning Friends,
“‘Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought
of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.’ ‘You are not yet fifty years old,’
the Jews said to him, ‘and you have seen Abraham!’ ‘I tell you the truth,’
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.”
(John 8:56-59)
It seems like such a simple little statement
that Jesus made: “before Abraham was born, I am.” But it set the Jews off. They
wanted to kill Him!
In that simple little statement, Jesus was
saying that He had been alive for thousands of years, existing even before
Abraham was born, before the Jewish nation got its start. No human being can
say that. That’s the point: Jesus was declaring that He was no ordinary human
being. Although clothed in flesh and bound by the limitations of humanity,
Jesus was claiming to be God!
That’s even clearer when you grasp the
meaning of the title by which He called Himself: “I am.”
It’s a title that says He has no beginning
and no end. Jesus was declaring that time meant nothing to Him. He lived – and
still lives -- in the eternal present. We would say, “I was there before Abraham
was born.” Jesus said, “I am.”
Even more significantly, the two words “I am”
are the name by which the Father called
Himself. When Moses asked God at the burning
bush, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers
has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I
tell them?” (Exodus 3:13) God answered Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you
are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14)
Jesus was declaring Himself to be God. That
was very clear to the Jews who heard Him. They picked up stones to kill Him for
it!
He’s no mere man that we follow. He’s not
just a good man, nor even a great man. We follow Jesus. We follow God!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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