The last half of John 8 is one of the most interesting conversations between Jesus and his detractors that is recorded. Our Savior is direct, confrontational and in the end, makes the most clear assertion of his own divinity that is found in the Gospels.
He began, in verses 31-38, to challenge the core belief of the Jewish leaders. They trusted in their special favor with God based on their descent from Abraham, but Jesus intimated that they were serving the wrong father (insinuating that they were children of Satan). They challenged him in verse 39, reasserting that they were Abraham's children, but Jesus renewed his objection to this. He told them, in verses 40-47, that if they were truly the children of God and the descendants of Abraham, then they would recognize that he comes from the Father and would honor him.
That's when the religious leaders just got angry, accusing Jesus both of racial impurity (calling him a Samaritan) and of having a demon. Jesus denied it and the conversation escalated as Jesus asserted his own place in the work of God in the world. Look at verses 54-56.
“My glory is nothing. My Father—you say about Him, ‘He is our God’—He is the One who glorifies Me. You’ve never known Him, but I know Him. If I were to say I don’t know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know Him, and I keep His word. Your father Abraham was overjoyed that he would see My day; he saw it and rejoiced.”Jesus shocked the Jewish leaders by claiming that instead of drawing his greatness from Abraham that Abraham recognized the greatness of Jesus. Was he actually saying that he was superior to Abraham? No Jew would say that!
They challenged him on it. He was less than 50 years old, and he'd seen Abraham? Absurd, they thought. This man was crazed, a megalomaniac!
That is when Jesus dropped the bomb!
Before Abraham was, I am. (John 8:58).This was the most startling claim Jesus ever made. The name of God in Hebrew is Yahweh, and it is built on the Hebrew verb "to be." It was revealed to Moses when he asked God what his name was. "I am who I am," God replied. Yahweh (sometimes misspelled Jehovah) - that is God's name. He is the great "I Am."
And here was this Galilean carpenter asserting that in fact HE IS the I AM! Is it any wonder that verse 59 says that they picked up stones to stone him. They knew exactly who he was claiming to be. He was not just claiming that he was eternal or pre-existent. He did not say, "I was." No. "I AM!
Jesus is Yahweh, the Great I Am, the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, the Lord of Heaven and Earth.
It is interesting that Jesus did not hide his glory to please the crowd. In fact, God had to save him miraculously from that crowd that day, because it wasn't his time. But whether or not the world likes it, they need to know who Jesus is.
And we need to tell them!
Father, I glorify your Son, the great I Am, the one who shares your divine nature and in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily. May I devote my life to making him known in this world.
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