The Great I AM

April 17, 2021 Georgia Tanner

“So they asked him plainly, “Who are you?”

"I am the One I've always claimed to be," Jesus replied.

John 8:25 The Passion Translation

They were offended. And they had every reason to be. He was arrogant and blasphemous, claiming the Holy things of God as his own. And they didn’t even know the half of it. Yeah, they knew about what he was teaching the crowds in the Temple, (of all places!), but they didn’t have a clue about what he had said to that woman by Jacob’s well. And they would have been even more appalled that he had been talking to her in the first place.

Jesus was a problem. He was offensive. He was teaching without their authority. Worse, he seemed to know things they didn’t know – and they were the experts. The elite. The educated. The sanctified. And they alone knew how to balance this tight rope walk with the Romans. Jesus was not only a problem, but he could also prove to be dangerous if the crowds took it upon themselves to think he was something more than a common Jewish teacher.

When our son was a teen, our church youth traveled to Belize to help with adding a second floor to a Christian school. Our family was invited along as chaperones. The local church there asked if we could also put together a Vacation Bible School for their kids. They expected around 30 children to come.

This was a small village in the countryside where homes had no running water, and electricity had just been introduced two years before. Houses were often one small room for both eating and sleeping with dirt floors. The thatch roofs had an opening in the center, allowing the smoke to escape from the open fire used for cooking.

The people of the area spoke their native Spanish, but the children learned English in school. As I researched the curriculum for their VBS, I realized I could not possibly use American materials to teach these children the truths of Jesus. Instead, God took me to the most basic teaching about Jesus available: his own words of who he is.

Jesus told about himself in beautiful simple everyday provisions. Everyone everywhere can understand the need for fresh water. For bread for the day. For light in a dark night. For a good path to follow. These wonderful word pictures found in John became our curriculum. Each day our teaching, our memory verses, our activities, our art projects taught a new truth; “I am living water.” “I am the bread of heaven.” “I am light in the darkness.” “I am the way to the Father.” It was perfect. As easy to understand in a small village in Belize as it was in the small villages in Israel 2,000 years before.

So why were the religious leaders of Israel furious over such simple word pictures? Look at the first two words of how Jesus described himself: “I am…” Look at how the Great Lord God of the people of Israel had described himself: “I AM…”. Remember the story of God showing up in a burning bush that was not consumed? God spoke to Moses, called him by name, and told him he was standing on holy ground. God introduced himself; “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham…”. And when Moses asked who he should say was sending him to rescue the people of Israel from the Egyptians, God defined Himself as “I AM WHO I AM… This is my name forever.” (Exodus 3:6,14-15). The people would learn a great deal about the power and might of I AM and would be most careful in speaking His name.

March slowly forward 1,500 years and there in the land of Israel, people were praying for another hero to come along to save them from their captives. And a strange man shows up defining himself as “I am…”.

If you are asking that same question about Jesus, “Who are you?”, the place to find the answer to that question is in his own words.

“I am (the Messiah). I can give you living water and you will never be thirsty again. You will have in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (My paraphrase of John 4:10,14,25-26.)

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. I am the bread of life; if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever.” (My paraphrase of the discussion after feeding the 5,000 in John 6:26-58.)

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

“I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John10:11,17,27-28)

“I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Jesus said to a grieving woman named Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and he called to her brother, dead for four days, to come out from his tomb. (The story of Lazarus is in John11:1-44.)

“I am…”. These were fighting words. The leaders of the Jews picked up rocks to stone him. They would arrange for his arrest. They would encourage his crucifixion.

In Belize, on hot summer afternoons, children gathered in an open-air church to hear these exact same descriptions of Jesus. A young girl of 8 would have her 5-year-old brother beside her, and her 3-year-old sister in her lap. We did not have 30 children. We lost count when more than 100 children showed up day after day to listen to these words of a man who described himself with the sacred and holy words, “I am…”.

His description of himself is so clear a child could understand it. And it is so offensive it would get him killed. Who do you think he is?

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