I am

Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.’

The Jews answered him, ‘Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?’ Jesus answered, ‘I do not have a demon; but I honour my Father, and you dishonour me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge. Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.’ The Jews said to him, ‘Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, “Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.” Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, “He is our God”, though you do not know him. But I know him; if I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.’ Then the Jews said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

- John 8:47-59

Yet more theology of Father and Son is revealed to us in this passage today. Jesus says that if he denied his relationship to the Father, that would make him a liar. Beyond that, there is a new claim here - a clear kinship that extends far beyond the immediacy of his time and place. There is this phrase, "Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am." We must note the tense of the phrase "I am."

In the Orthodox churches, there is often an icon stretched across the ceiling high on the dome of the church. This is Christ Pantocrator (from the Greek) - "Pantocrator" meaning "all powerful." It is the notion of Christ resurrected and in his role as Lord. Around this icon are the letters, "OΩN". These are the words, in Greek, that represent the Tetragrammaton of the Old Testament, and these words here in the gospel of John in the present tense, "I am." If I were to try to give a translation in my very vernacular English, one could roughly say "O ΩN" could be translated as "the one that is" or "the one who is." In English we have the Old Testament translation "I am that I am." This is the Being whose very ontological state is always in the state of the verb "to be."


And so Christ asserts not only his relationship to the Father but his very being with the Father in a concurrent reality, a constant state of being, beyond what we understand of time. His words here clearly allude to the Tetragrammaton, the four letters from which we derive the word Yahweh. This is the response given to Moses when he asks for a name. Jesus' words, translated from the Greek here, are simply, "I am" but it is a clear allusion to the Name given to Moses of the identity of God. And so some in the crowd respond by attempting to stone him.


In this phrase, Jesus aligns himself with the Lord of the Old Testament, who appeared in the burning bush, who loved and shepherded the Jewish people and set them apart through their history. He is stating a nature that is the same as that of the Father - the One that Is. And what are we to make of this divine alignment, these powerful awe-striking words? How do we respond?