The "I AM's" of Jesus

August 12, 2012

Pentecost XI

Fr. Philip Eberhart

The “I AM’s” of Jesus

As I began to read through our gospel passage this morning I was struck by Jesus saying, “I AM.”  As you know, these were the words that, in Hebrew, form what is called the Tetragrammaton, or the 4-letter, nearly unpronounceable name of God given to Moses at the encounter with God’s presence at the burning bush.  Y – H – W – H  from which we get the anglicized version:  Yahweh or Jehovah, that we are more familiar with.

Just a bit of history around this word:

As it was revealed to Moses the Name of God was considered to be holy, so holy that, when written in the Old Testament in the original form (YHWH) the scribe, would stop his work, go wash ritually, come back, write the Name, and go wash ritually again, before continuing to write.  Something similar to a Dr. preparing for surgery!  This was serious business.

Of course these words are normal parts of speech.  A personal pronoun, I, and a verb of being, AM. 

I AM.

When I began to process this sermon, I did a search in the Gospels for those two words and came up with hundreds of instances of their use, of course.  Then it occurred to me that adding the definite article “THE” would separate out the specific instances that I was looking for in the gospels.  What I found was very interesting.

The “I AM’s” of Jesus occur exclusively in the Gospel of John.  Save one very important one:  The Synoptic Gospels, Mark, Matthew and Luke all record Jesus response to the question of the High Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, at his trial:

Mark 14: 61-62;  Luke 22:70; and Matthew 26:63-64

All record Jesus answering a direct question by the High Priest:

"I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

 In all three accounts, Jesus answers in the affirmative, in Mark and Luke with the actual words “I AM” and in Matthew with “YOU SAID IT!”  and He followed the admission with a further statement:

 “I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, AND COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”

In the Gospel of John, John’s concern with placing Jesus in his Spiritual place in the cosmos is evident from the very outset where we read, in John’s prologue:

 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

 John wants from the outset to make it clear to his readers that we are not talking about an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, every day Jewish Rabbi.  We are talking in completely different categories here.

 He goes on to make it even more explicit in his first chapter:  vss. 9-12

 “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” (ESV)

 Here we begin to see John’s use of metaphor for the what of Jesus mission in the world.

 And that is the point of John’s usage of the “I AM’s” throughout his gospel account.

 And those actually begin with the one in our reading this morning:

I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE…

            I AM THE BREAD THAT CAME DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN.
I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE…
            I AM THE LIVING BREAD THAT CAME DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN;

And then the punch line:  In vs. 51

 “… if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

 Jesus is here likening Himself to the Manna from heaven that Moses gave the children of Israel in the wilderness after the Exodus.  Jesus makes very explicit connections between himself and this “bread from heaven.”

And then at the last, He connects the bread with his own sacrifice, and hearkens back to the whole sacrificial system of ancient Israel.  Jesus is saying, very clearly to his Jewish hearers that His body, given on the cross and celebrated in remembrance, on this Table, is the BREAD OF LIFE, given by God for the life of the world.

We call the Eucharist a “means of grace.”  Indeed!  “Anyone who eats of this bread, will live forever!”   Hallelujah!!

Let’s press on to the other I AM’s of Jesus in John’s gospel:

 Just two chapters later in Jn 8:   “I AM the Light of the world:  He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life!”

He repeats this again in Jn 9, then in Jn 10, we are all familiar with the great passage:

I AM THE DOOR OF THE SHEEP… (He elaborates)

            I AM THE DOOR;  IF ANYONE ENTERS THROUGH ME, HE WILL BE
            SAVED, AND WILL GO IN AND OUT AND FIND PASTURE.

 I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD … WHO LAYS DOWN HIS LIFE FOR THE SHEEP

           I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD, AND I KNOW MY OWN AND MY OWN KNOW ME;

Jesus, takes on the metaphor of the Shepherd, in John 10, just as God has had that role through Israel’s history, the Great Shepherd of Israel.  We hearken back to the very familiar Psalm 23:

 Psa 23:1 The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psa 23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
Psa 23:3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Psa 23:4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou [art] with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psa 23:5  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Psa 23:6  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

 Here we find a Psalm of ultimate comfort, one we use often at funerals or in times of difficulty.  It reveals the role of the Shepherd of Israel.  Also from Psalm 95:7

 Psa 95:7  “For he [is] our God; and we [are] the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. “

Jesus taps into an historical reference to God the Father with his Jewish hearers.

I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD.

 And again, in the very next chapter, Jesus claims the Name and Nature of God:

 Jn 11:25

I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE;  HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME, WILL LIVE EVEN IF HE DIES,

 A clear reference to the power of God the Father to give and sustain life, Jesus here is claiming the Power of God as His own power.  Of course, one can claim such power easily, but in the setting of Jn 11, Jesus is talking to Mary, the sister of the dead Lazarus.

From her he immediately turns and makes his words a reality in their hearing that day:

 LAZARUS, COME FORTH!!!

And in his final discourse, after supper with his disciples in the Upper Room, Jesus tells Philip and the others,

I AM THE WAY, AND THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE;  NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER BUT THROUGH ME.

These words of Jesus are the capstone of the I AM sayings!  Jesus sets himself apart here in stark contrast to the world, and to the many ways, the many truths that we run after.  There is one source of truth and life from God the Father, and Jesus is the Way.  As Paul was later to preach

 “There is no other Name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved!”

Just let me say, that if you entertain any of the popular notions of today’s pluralistic, multi-cultural religious elite, that there are “many ways to God” or that there is no one way that is “THE WAY” then this statement of Jesus must act as a STOP sign for us, before turning down that path.

And finally, Jesus final two I AM’s

 I AM THE TRUE VINE;

            I AM THE VINE, YOU ARE THE BRANCHES;  HE WHO ABIDES IN ME
            AND I IN HIM, HE BEARS MUCH FRUIT, FOR APART FROM ME YOU
            CAN DO NOTHING!!!

 Speaks for itself, eh?

And the final I am, from Matt 28:

            I AM WITH YOU, EVEN TO THE END OF THE AGE!

AMEN AND AMEN

The Building Blocks of Faith

December 26, 2010
“To As Many as Believed”

The Building Blocks of Faith


So how important are some of the building blocks … some of the specifics of what we believe about Jesus Christ?

For instance, just how important is this Virgin Birth thing? And if it is important, why is it important?

The problem with our age, according to a recent Barna poll of Christian believers across the US is that we have stopped thinking theologically … probably an outgrowth of the fact that some decades ago we stopped reading … biblically !! Our understanding of the import of individual pieces of doctrine and how it fits together systematically to make the whole of what we call “belief” is, for much of the country, at an all time low.

Now I wouldn’t say that this is true of us at REZ generally, but I am certain that we cannot swim in the water of our culture without being effected by its pollutants !! And I know that we approach our faith in America kind of like a HOBBY! I’ve heard it said that in America “we Worship our work, we Work at our play and we Play at our worship!” And if we do indeed play at our worship then we probably approach belief much like this game of JENGA. Certainly our culture does.

The point of the game is to sit with an opponent and try to remove as much of the foundational structure of the tower until it topples over. Whoever removes the last piece before it topples, loses!! Its fun!

The question before us is 1: What pieces of our faith are foundational? And 2: What happens to us if we do not hold to them or really understand that they are foundational?

The writer to the Hebrews urges his readers to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.” (10:23) But we have a tendency to easily set aside tenets within the structure of our hope, without thinking about them too much. And pretty soon we are experiencing a crisis of faith – the toppling effect of removing pieces of the foundation.

So how about this Virgin Birth thing? How important is it and why?

Our gospel reading begins with the classic words of John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Most of us accept that Jesus is somehow divine and human together – that is the doctrine of the incarnation and it is central to our understanding of Jesus and is foundational to our understanding of who He was, and is and what He did among us.

Larry King, of CNN fame, was once asked if he could interview anyone from the history of the world, who would he interview. His answer was Jesus Christ. When asked what his interview would consist of he said he would ask one question: “Were you really virgin born?” Because if the answer is Yes, it “explains history for me.”

How important is this little piece of our foundation?

Is the Virgin Birth of Jesus something we can negotiate with? And what real evidence do we have to support our belief in it?

IS IT NEGOTIABLE?

Well, NO, not if you want to have the “faith once delivered to the saints.” (Jude)

If we remove the Virgin Birth of Jesus, we subsequently and necessarily must remove Miracles and Divinity from the equation, as the Virgin Birth speaks to his origins… to the mechanics of his arrival among us … as simply a man or … as a God/Man.

The choices are two: Either Jesus was the illegitimate son of a carpenter and his teen bride (as many in his village likely believed) OR he was the supernatural gift of God through a chosen virgin, as prophecy predicts and as the story recounts in Scripture.

The choice then made sets one on a path of belief or unbelief, based on the assumptions that form this one building block of faith and hope.

The Virgin Birth points at least to a world that is unbound by sheer naturalism. Ravi Zacharias makes this point in his book, “Jesus Among Other Gods”. (p. 38) He points out that such a claim, especially in the time and culture in which it was advanced, would have been subject to scorn and ridicule at the very least – stoning and death at the worst. For a young, betrothed bride to turn up pregnant at the wedding was a scandal of the first order – and for her to be accepted in that condition by the new husband was evidence, in and of itself, that something else – something extraordinary was happening.

But what proofs can be offered except the recounting of dreams or visions by Mary herself or by Joseph her husband, both of whom have the most to lose if this was a fabrication – a lie.
Interestingly the other characters in the story also play an important role as does an understanding of the culture. Zacharias goes on,

“Mary, Joseph, Zacharias, Elizabeth, John the Baptist, and then the disciples risked everything for this truth.”

He explains that the culture was one of “power and position,” and for them to set their son up for his humiliation toward a cousin younger than himself and to maintain that position of “second fiddle” even up to their son’s death at the hands of Herod’s daughter and the guards who brought her his head, was cultural suicide. It was a path toward ostracism and living as outcasts in their own home towns!

And for Mary and Joseph, the claim of a supernatural pregnancy, while they were engaged, would have been laughed at and they would have been ostracized in the harshest ways by those in closest relationships with them. Instead the opposite appears to be the case, as Joseph took Mary in, though pregnant without disgracing her publically, as did Elizabeth, her cousin, during the final trimester of her pregnancy, when the outward evidence of her pregnancy was irrefutable. All these point to the veracity of what they believed about the pregnancy – that they believed what Mary had said about God’s hand in all this.

Do you believe it?

Do you believe what we say each Sunday:
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

If you believe it what does this mean?

As Larry King said, “it explains all of history!” It means that Jesus is who he said he was, the very Son of God – God With Us, Emmanuel. The Virgin Birth is set as a diamond in the setting of hundreds of prophecies regarding this coming of Messiah. Matthew spends inordinate amounts of ink on making those connections, and that is why you have Joseph’s genealogy and the Joseph dream story up front in Matthew. Those two stories are the ring setting for the story Luke tells us of the details of the birth, the testimony of Mary (which has little real credibility apart from Joseph’s acceptance of her), and the theological ramifications of such a birth.

Valerie is working today, but she related to me her astonishment this past week at a discovery she made at her work. She works with two muslim women, who celebrate Christmas. Seems like a contradiction, right? But no! It seems that one other religion in the world holds to Jesus’ Virgin Birth: Islam!!

In the Koran (Surah 19:19ff) Jesus, it asserts, was “born of a virgin.” Yet Islam denies the divinity of Jesus, maintaining that he was the last great prophet, before Mohammed. The Koran was written 600 years after Jesus birth, yet affirms this birth story as true, but does not make the connection to Jesus origin then, in God. Just as for many in our modern culture, the connection between the virgin birth and divinity of Jesus is lost. But it is one of the features of this story that is unique among world religions: Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed, all born of natural means and died natural deaths.

Jesus stands alone here, and is the unique witness of God’s power and love for humankind the ssssssssssworld over. From the beginning, “communion and the power to give life existed in God himself. God, who is Father, Son and Spirit is in fact, Being-in-relationship. In Christ, the Word became flesh. God created flesh in the act of the creation of man and woman but God was not bound by our requirements of consummation in begetting His One and Only, Unique Son, through whom He was “reconciling the world to himelf.”

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.

You see, to be born of God, we must follow the way of Jesus, the Virgin Born One, who was born, "not of blood, or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God." It is thus, just as Jesus was, that we are given the power and right to become children of God.

So let us hold fast the hope that we profess and believe and receive Him, once again,
In the stable that is our heart, as he is born in us this day.

Amen.

Emmanuel: God With Us !!

Sunday, December 19, 2010
Advent IV
Emmanuel: God With Us


How many of you have ever considered the meaning of your name? I have. Philip means Lover from the Greek word, Phileo. Some add “of horses” but I haven’t lived into that definition very well. The last encounter I had with a horse I was thrown from a 17 hand stallion as he ended a full gallop. He saw the fence coming up and didn’t think I was going to turn. I lost.

What’s in a name? Much it seems!!

“And you shall name Him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins”
And they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.”

Names play an important role in our lives. We pass on family names from generation to generation. Sometimes that is expected. People were amazed when Zachariah, the prophet and priest recovered his speech, at the naming of his son: HIS NAME IS JOHN: the Baptizer, the FORERUNNER, and cousin of Jesus. His name was given in obedience to a vision from God about John’s future work.

In African cultures, names are given because of a desired character or perhaps a significant event, around the birth of a child. And these names are native to the area or tribal tie. The names shape the person in many ways.

We in America can hardly buy that, since we name our kids after favorite movie stars or because we like the sound of a name. Sometimes we even name our children with a view to how the name will boil down in a nickname that they will be stuck with for the rest of their life!!

But the world over, names are still important, as they were in Biblical times and cultures.
So what’s in The Name? Jesus… EMMANUEL.

Jesus means Savior (literally “Jehovah is Salvation”) ; Emmanuel, God With Us.

These capture the essence and center of the mission and purpose of the life that they named. JEhovah Saves US! JESUS! Jesus is, … the Son of God, … the Savior of mankind, … God incarnate. That’s a lot to pack into a Name. You wonder why Satan has an all out attack going on on That Name?

America isn’t the only place where the Name of Jesus has fallen out of favor! A recent online report from Charisma Magazine says:

“Nearly all human-rights groups and Western government agencies that monitor the plight of Christians worldwide agree: Between 200 million and 230 million believers face daily threats of murder, beating, imprisonment and torture, and a further 350 million to 400 million encounter discrimination in areas such as jobs and housing. A conservative estimate of the number of Christians killed for their faith each year is around 150,000.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reported during a conference last month on Christian persecution that Christians were “harassed” by government factors in 102 countries and by social factors, such as mob rule, in 101 countries.

The report, presented at the conference hosted by the European Parliament, stated: “Altogether, Christians faced some form of harassment in two-thirds of all countries,” or 133 nations.

A Pew Forum spokesperson told the Star that Christians face harassment in more countries “than any other religious group.” In yet clearer terms, the conference was told that “at least” 75 percent of all religious persecution in the world is directed against Christians.”
( Read more: http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/29710-christian-persecution-tops-world-list-who-knew-#ixzz18YoophX4 )

The Name of Jesus is the most hated name across the world. Why? Because it is “the Only Name that is given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) We live in a world that rejects that premise. Paul said of Jesus, in his letter to the Philippian Church: “God has given him a Name that is above every other name; and at the Name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father!” (2: 9-11) We live in a world that refuses to BOW NOW, but it will … BOW LATER!

Let’s consider for a moment the import of the name, EMMANUEL. Three little words:

GOD - The Supreme of the Universe, the Creator, the Immortal and Only Wise, The All Knowing, All Seeing, Ever Present, All Powerful, Unchanging and Everlasting God.

That GOD – the God who IS that He IS, From before the beginning and who will be after the end – The Wholly Other – The Holy Lover --The Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace: THAT GOD!!

WITH - “to denote association in respect of situation or environment; hence, among; in the company of.” “Denotes a connection of friendship, support, alliance, assistance, countenance, etc; hence, on the side of.” (Hyper dictionary Online)

Of the disciples, it is told that the Jewish leaders “took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13) It was obviously a life-changing association. And it still is! Jesus promised at the end, on the day He ascended to heaven: I will be WITH you, always, even to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20) Being with Jesus, then and now, is the KEY to the life transformation we seek and that the world needs!!

US - Imagine it. US! That’s you and me. Not only was Jesus with the disciples, the heavy hitters, the A-Team, but He is with US. In all of our frailty and indecision, in all of our trials and tribulations, in all our sin and rebellion, Jesus is WITH US. US!

If you just stop and think about it, it will blow you away! GOD… WITH… US!!



And you need to know that this isn’t a passing phase with God. This is a settled decision, to the extent that He has been at it now for two-thousand plus years – and God showed this commitment for thousands of years before sending His Son, Jesus! This is a settled decision – a settled pattern of behavior by God! Paul tells us that “God was IN CHRIST, reconciling the world to Himself!” (2 Cor 5:19)



So what? So what is our response? Here in Advent – a few days from the celebration of his first advent, at Christmas on Friday evening and on Saturday.

What is our response?

Perhaps a good clue would be the response of those who knew of his first coming:
The shepherds and the Wise Men. They were led to the discovery – by different means and on different routes, but to the same destination. From different stations in life, but both came to be on bended knee at the feet of the manger bed of this Jesus, God With Us.

Like the Shepherds we have heard the revelation – perhaps not in the voices of the angels overhead – but in the words of the testimony of Jesus, the Bible. Like the Shepherds we must come and see this ONE – come and encounter HIM. Theirs took no less faith than ours… To believe a baby in a cattle stall, born in a barn, to peasant parents, a carpenter and his wife, was THE SON OF GOD. How can our faith need to be greater than theirs? All they did was obey the word of the host of angels, Go and See!

We are bid similarly, Come and see!! Come and encounter the living Son of God, Jesus the Christ, Emmanuel: God with us.

Like the Wise men, led by heavenly signs to the place where Jesus lay, we are led by the Spirit of Jesus, to encounter him today. Wise men, they say, still seek Him!

Are you wise? Are you seeking? If you seek, you will find Him. He is nearer than you think. He is after all … Emmanuel: God With Us!

Amen.

That One Day

Feels like a year since I've been here! Sorry.

A lot of events, crises, travel and whatnot seems to get in the way of taking the time to think and write.

We are already approaching the mid-way point of Lent, unbelievably! The Hamilton Study on 24 Hours that Changed the World is grabbing our hearts and our imaginations. That one day - the most significant day in the history of the planet -a day of pain and infinite love; a day of betrayal and tears; a day of blood and sweat; a day for me and for you.

One Day! Sundown Thursday to sundown Friday. The meal with friends: This is My body, broken for you; this is my Blood, of the New Covenant, poured out for you;

The washing of feet - lowest place of servanthood in the whole society - "If I, your master, wash your feet, you should also wash each other's feet!"

"Love one another, as I have loved you! "

Love in the face of betrayal by trusted friends. Perhaps the hardest test of love there is. Followed by the mock sham of a trial and another betrayal, by your best friend! The look - eyes meet - what was the unspoken message?

Peter! I love you. I'm sad, but I know your heart. I know your weakness ... and your strength. Weep now and through sorrow gain resolve. Repent and follow me. We have much to do.

Perhaps the unspoken language of this look from Jesus conveyed for Peter the stuff of life transformation. He was broken by it - and put back together by it. Jesus never betrayed or rejected Peter in return, even in his look across the courtyard as the cock crowed.

"He will never leave us or forsake us."

"Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross, that all the world might come within the reach of your saving embrace! So clothe us with your Spirit, that we, reaching out our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you, to the knowledge and love of you, for the honor of your Name. Amen"
(Book of Common Prayer, Morning Prayer, P. 101)