Sunday Service | The I Am Statements | April 25, 2021
We’re starting a new series this week, on the “I AM” statements of Jesus. We’re still in the Easter season, and therefore trying to keep our minds on the life that Jesus gives us. The life present all the way back in the Garden of Eden. Death didn’t happen in the beginning, in the garden. It happened in the separation. Jesus, in his life, death, and resurrection, enters that separation to bring life and reconciliation.
We will follow these 7 statements through John’s gospel, in which Jesus reveals himself as the I AM--telling the story of us returning from exile and separation, death, through his own sacrifice.
Why do these statements matter?
It’s all too easy in our generation’s time to distance ourselves from Jesus. These statements are about who he is and how he meets us.
And it all starts in Exodus,with Moses. God’s people are in slavery, and Moses is rescued from that by being adopted by Pharoah’s family. But when he murders a slave driver, he flees to the wilderness, and becomes a simple shepherd. It’s here God meets him and turns a cave into holy ground. A bush into a burning flame. And to him, God reveals that he has heard his people’s pain and cries and he is moving to respond to them and to restore them.
God asks Moses to be that minister of response, that prophet of restoration, to go back to Egypt and tell God’s people it’s time for rescue. But he worries about what he will say. “Who has sent me? What authority am I going back with?”
In Exodus 3.14, God answers: “Tell them that I AM THAT I AM has sent you.”
This is a pivotal moment wherein God reveals himself, who he is and what he is like: eternal, infinite, glorious, and the one with a plan.
This name of God, yahweh, is one that the Jewish people to this day do not say aloud, and yet the rabbis teach that this is the name on every one of our breaths; our inhales and exhales speak his name.
Jesus--radically--applies this name to himself. In this he is claiming himself as God, not as prophet or priest only. He is also claiming the same thing God says before revealing this name in Exodus 3: He hears us. He sees us. He will deliver us, just as God delivered Israel out of Egypt.
Everything around us tries to define us in anything other than the image of God we’ve been made in. We process these other definitions of ourselves through the lens of our true identity: beloved of God.
The freedom of Christ allows us to know we are loved outside of our circumstances, which often speak the opposite. In bad circumstances, we turn inward. We fear. We lose hope--hope that God is the I AM who sees, hears, and is on the move to save us.
Think about the events of this week. Derek Chauvin’s conviction did not bring us peace. There is joy in the accountability of it, but was it true justice? We’re left longing for more--for wholeness.
This is why we keep seeking Jesus--the Jesus who seeks after us. The life of Christ is our life--promised to us. It began at his baptism, where God affirmed him as beloved, and led to a life of great love. It was not without struggle, just like our lives.
“I am the bread of life.”
“I am the light of the world.”
“I am the door of the sheep.”
“I am the resurrection and the life.”
“I am the good shepherd.”
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
“I am the true vine.”
These are about how Jesus loves us. He knows us. He knows what will fill us--and so he acts accordingly. He knows where we are in exile, and how to find us, and he comes to that spot to restore us. We can trust him. He is faithful.
Let’s explore these 7 statements together over the next 7 weeks!