I Am   –   John 8:48-59

JESUS: Is He who He claims to be?

Reading the book of John is like sitting on a jury that is deciding if Jesus is who He claims to be. Within the pages of the gospel, Jesus repeats the words I am over and over again. I am the way…I am the truth…I am the light…I am the good shepherd…I am the door. And on it goes.

The word translated “I am” in the New Testament is the Greek word ego. In English, ego means self. The Lord’s ego statements led some of those who encountered Him to the conclusion that He was a self-obsessed mental case—or an ego-maniac: The Jews then said, “That clinches it. We were right all along when we called you a Samaritan and said you were crazy—demon-possessed!” (John 8:48, msg).

“You’re acting like you’re the judge,” Jesus said, but “God is going to glorify me. He is the true judge” (John 8:50b, nlt). “God is going to rule in my favor. Indeed, He already has. And since God is Life, those who hold on to what I say about myself, about life, will “never have to look death in the face” (John 8:51, msg).

They asked Jesus “Who do you think you are?” (John 8:53). “I am I AM,” He told them. “I am unstoppable, uninterrupted Aliveness. I am eternal.”

“You’re nuts,” they said. “Abraham, our father in the faith, is the greatest man we know of, and he died.”

“Believe me,” said Jesus, “I am who I am long before Abraham was anything” (John 8:58, msg).

Get that? Jesus claimed that He was in existence before Abraham was born. He claimed to be the “I Am,” a Jewish title kept exclusively for God. “I Am” is eternal aliveness. Jesus is God, and God is ultimate, unstoppable aliveness—all three tenses of existence at once and forever.

The whole court case hinges on the issue of aliveness. Jesus claims to BE aliveness, to HAVE aliveness, and to GIVE aliveness. If He had just cooled that aliveness thing, maybe He wouldn’t have had to experience death by crucifixion. But even that was, for Him, only temporary. As Jesus summed it up for John in the book of Revelation, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18, nkjv).

Life Challenge: Claiming to be the source of eternal aliveness, Jesus said, “Believe me” (John 8:58, msg). Do you? If you do, tell Him now, and tell someone else today.

TRUTH…or consequences.

Some of the people listening to Jesus’ teachings were beginning to conclude that He was the real deal. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

Believing is a process (where the NIV says they had believed, The Living Bible says they began believing him). Faith can be faked. The Message says, that they claimed to believe.

It’s common to hear truth, grab hold, but then let it slip away. True belief is holding on for dear life. Only then does God’s truth set free you from the lies within you and around you. Why then, do we let go of truth?

Two years ago, our family was boating at Shasta Lake in northern California. As we pulled up to the dock, I put one leg over onto the boards. Just then the boat pulled away from the dock. I did the splits, injuring my right hip. Why had I held on to both the boat and the dock? Because I had my cell phone in my pocket and didn’t want it to get wet! When push came to shove, I couldn’t decide which way to jump. And my indecision was painful!

That’s what it’s like when we try to hold onto both the truth of Christ and our own priorities and agenda at the same time. At some point we’ll have to jump one way or another. Yes, holding onto the Lord’s way may bring some pain before it brings freedom. As someone once said, “The truth will set you free, but it might make you miserable first.” Maybe that is why so many of Christ’s critics, somewhere in their lives, let go of the truth.

The critics told Jesus that they were descendants of Abraham and in spite of Rome’s oppression, totally free spirits. Then Jesus told them the truth about their lies. They were actually caught in a death trap. He went on to tell them that if they had been really connected with the living God they would have recognized His totally truthful Son. (Jesus says “I tell you the truth” thirty times in the book of John.)

“The truth is,” Jesus said to the religious leaders, “as children of the devil and slaves of death, you will eventually kill Me, even though I told you the truth that I heard from God.” At that, they accused Him of being a lying lunatic. When you call the One who totally personifies truth a liar, you’ve got a terrible case of truth decay!

Life Question: What is the worst case of truth decay you’ve ever seen in our culture? In your family? In yourself?

WHEN I DON’T UNDERSTAND what God is saying about life, He patiently puts it another way.

God dressed in skin was standing right in front of them. They didn’t recognize Him, so Jesus…went over the same ground again. “I’m leaving and you are going to look for me, but you’re missing God in this and are headed for a dead end” (John 8:21a, msg).

When Jesus talked about going somewhere they couldn’t go, they thought He might be speaking of suicide. But He was talking about going to God the Father, going back to ultimate aliveness. “You can’t reach God and ultimate aliveness,” Jesus said, “because you’ve misjudged Me. I’m not just going to ultimate aliveness, I am the one and only way to get there.”

Jesus was speaking to people who were physically alive but spiritually dead. Physical life is terminal, but spiritual life, life offered by God through Jesus, is a longer, deeper, higher form of life. Spiritual life is life from above. If Jesus hadn’t come from above to bring us life from above, we couldn’t be born from above and end up living above, happily ever after.

He continued, “You are from below; I am from above…if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:23a, 24a).

When Jesus spoke of “dying in sin,” He wasn’t just talking about why they would die (they sinned) but how they would die. Sin is anything that disconnects us (partially or completely) from God. Jesus is the way to stay connected to God. If I don’t believe in Jesus, I miss the only way to be connected to God’s eternal aliveness. Jesus said it plainly: “If you don’t believe and receive Me, you’re on a dead-end road.” But they still didn’t get it… So Jesus tried again (8:27a, msg).

I love God’s persistence. I love how He explains it yet another way when I don’t get it the first, second, or third time. I love how He kept after me, even after I had turned my back on Him. When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe (John 8:30, msg).

Me, too.

Life Challenge: Do you know someone who seems blind to something that is obvious to you? Instead of giving up on that person, ask God to help you “put it another way.”

GOD is light.

When Jesus said that He was “living light” (John 8:12, tlb), the Pharisees retorted, “We don’t see it that way. In fact, we don’t believe You.”

“You’re blind to the light of life in Me,” Jesus was telling them, “because you judge by human standards. You just look at the surface of people and miss the substance.”

            He went on to say, “I don’t make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn’t make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father” (John 8:16b, msg).

A few days ago I was trying to read the small print on a medicine bottle, and could only make out about half the words. Then I went over and stood directly under the light. It helped a lot. My judgment is better—I see things better—when the light is brighter.

The Bible says “God is light.” Jesus, being so close to God the Father, looked at people and situations in the light of God’s illumination. The Pharisees misread Jesus and misread God the Father because they saw things in the shadowed light of their own selfishness and smallness. Indeed, these hyper-religious specialists were God-blind.

They said, “Where is this so-called Father of yours?” Jesus said, “You’re looking right at me and you don’t see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father” (John 8:19, msg).

These scriptures are teaching me that the closer I get to God, the better I see God in Jesus, the better I see myself, and the better I see others. God’s judgment is good judgment. He knows so much more than I know. He sees so much more than I see.

Remembering this makes me more inclined to ask God, “What do You see here—in this situation, in this set of circumstances—that You want me to see?” I need to get closer to the light before I try to read the label.

Life Challenge: Is there something you are trying to decide or discern these days? Remember that as you get closer to God, your judgment improves.

JESUS is the light of life.

It was dark and the battery on our pickup was stone dead.

Now what?

Stranded in a remote, mostly unpopulated region near the base of the Steens Mountains in southeastern Oregon, we had no choice but to go looking for help. We began walking toward the light from a distant ranch house. We guessed that the house was ten miles north across the vast sagebrush flatland, but after walking an hour, the light still looked ten miles away.

Then we saw a glint of light on the hillside to the west. It was moonlight reflecting off the window of a pickup canopy. After a fifteen minute climb up the hillside, we called out to the bird hunter sleeping inside. He sat up and turned on the overhead light in his canopy. An hour later his battery revived ours and we headed home.

I’ve thought about that shimmer of reflected moonlight many times since. That bit of reflected light represented hope and help to three tired men on that dark night.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

Jesus said, “I am the light of this spiritually dark world.” He reflects God’s aliveness just as a full moon reflects the light of the sun. And His reflected aliveness provides direction for seekers who would otherwise be lost in the darkness.

When I was a teenager, I remember standing on Sixth Avenue in Portland, Oregon when I suddenly looked up and saw a sign that said: “I am the light of the world.” I remember thinking, I wish I could believe that. But at that moment I didn’t, and life seemed dark and hopeless.

Six months later I saw an appealing brightness—a glint of reflected light—in the eyes of Steve, a high school friend who was bold enough to talk plainly with me about the One who claimed to be the light that leads to life (John 8:12, nlt). I started by reading the gospel of John, and the words of Jesus came alive, indeed seemed almost neon to me. I’ve since learned to prize the reflections of God’s aliveness in His Word and in this world.

Life Challenge: Do you currently see a reflection of God’s aliveness in someone’s life? Are you willing to tell that person what you see?

GOD WOULD RATHER FORGIVE us than condemn us.

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, one of His favorite places to pray and recharge. At dawn He walked to the temple court, where He sat to teach His growing audience. In mid-sentence, the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery and stood her in front of Him, greatly pleased to present Him with an impossible situation. “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” (John 8:4-5).

When I read this my first question is, “Where’s the guy? Doesn’t it take two to tango?” The accusers really didn’t care anything about justice; they just wanted to trap Jesus and put Him to death. And on that day, they thought they finally had him. Instead of stepping into their trap, however, Jesus stooped to write something on the ground. Scholars have long debated what Jesus wrote that day, and we really have no way of knowing. We do know, however, that His words convicted the accusers and the crowd. The words formed by His finger somehow pointed a finger at each and every one of them.

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7).

Again Jesus stooped and wrote on the ground. I’d love to know what it was. If I had been there, I’ll bet my curiosity would have been followed closely by conviction. One by one, oldest to youngest, the people began to put down their stones and walk away in silence, until only Jesus and the woman were left. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:10-11).

This story brings back to me the words Jesus spoke to Nicodemus late one night: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him …Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light…” (John 3:17, 19). Jesus is the light of the world, but I see Him as more like a lamp in a lighthouse than like a policeman’s spotlight that catches a wrong-doer in the act. His light doesn’t judge, it reveals and invites us into His life.

Life Question: Can you think of one secret thing Jesus could write about your life that would cause you to let go of criticism and be more compassionate?

* * *

WHO IS JESUS? The question leaves no place for neutrality.

 Having heard Jesus teach, some decided He was a prophet, while others insisted He must be the Messiah. Still others, imagining He had been born in Nazareth, said, “He can’t be the Christ because He wasn’t born in Bethlehem. Thus the people were divided because of Jesus (John 7:43).

All over the map about who Jesus was, no one laid a hand on Him. Even the temple guards, sent by the Pharisees to arrest Him, went back empty-handed, somewhat won over by what He said and the way He’d said it. “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted (John 7:47).

The Pharisees berated Jesus and claimed that the crowds who loved to listen to Him were uneducated idiots. None of the upper crust of Jewish society, they crowed, believed in Him. Then one of the upper crust, a man named Nicodemus who had come to Jesus earlier, mildly suggested that perhaps they were judging Him without making an honest appraisal of His actions and words. At that, the leaders turned on Nicodemus, one of their own, and accused him of being an uneducated hick. The religious leaders, headquartered in Jerusalem, thought of Galilee as “Hicksville,” the wrong side of the tracks. “What? Are you from Galilee too? He can’t be the Christ. He was born in Galilee.”

It amazes me that Jesus didn’t present His birth certificate and show His critics that, just as predicted of the Messiah by Old Testament prophets, His birthplace truly was Bethlehem. God sometimes refrains from giving confirmation to those who willfully and stubbornly disbelieve in spite of exposure to strong evidence. Jesus didn’t cast pearls before swine. He didn’t answer their questions about His place of origin, because they weren’t honest seekers.

So the crowd was divided, the Jewish leaders were divided, and Nicodemus was separated from the leaders. But that’s what Jesus does, isn’t it? Jesus divides. He did then and He does now. What He says requires all of us to stand on one side of the line or the other, with no straddling. I may think I’m judging the words of Jesus but, truth is, they are judging me.

Life-action: Take a few minutes right now and try to think of one time when straddling the line wasn’t an option, and you were forced to take a clear position about Christ.

JESUS is the light of life.

It was dark and the battery on our pickup was stone dead.

Now what?

Stranded in a remote, mostly unpopulated region near the base of the Steens Mountains in southeastern Oregon, we had no choice but to go looking for help. We began walking toward the light from a distant ranch house. We guessed that the house was ten miles north across the vast sagebrush flatland, but after walking an hour, the light still looked ten miles away.

Then we saw a glint of light on the hillside to the west. It was moonlight reflecting off the window of a pickup canopy. After a fifteen minute climb up the hillside, we called out to the bird hunter sleeping inside. He sat up and turned on the overhead light in his canopy. An hour later his battery revived ours and we headed home.

I’ve thought about that shimmer of reflected moonlight many times since. That bit of reflected light represented hope and help to three tired men on that dark night.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

Jesus said, “I am the light of this spiritually dark world.” He reflects God’s aliveness just as a full moon reflects the light of the sun. And His reflected aliveness provides direction for seekers who would otherwise be lost in the darkness.

When I was a teenager, I remember standing on Sixth Avenue in Portland, Oregon when I suddenly looked up and saw a sign that said: “I am the light of the world.” I remember thinking, I wish I could believe that. But at that moment I didn’t, and life seemed dark and hopeless.

Six months later I saw an appealing brightness—a glint of reflected light—in the eyes of Steve, a high school friend who was bold enough to talk plainly with me about the One who claimed to be the light that leads to life (John 8:12, nlt). I started by reading the gospel of John, and the words of Jesus came alive, indeed seemed almost neon to me. I’ve since learned to prize the reflections of God’s aliveness in His Word and in this world.

Life Challenge: Do you currently see a reflection of God’s aliveness in someone’s life? Are you willing to tell that person what you see?

GOD WOULD RATHER FORGIVE us than condemn us.

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, one of His favorite places to pray and recharge. At dawn He walked to the temple court, where He sat to teach His growing audience. In mid-sentence, the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery and stood her in front of Him, greatly pleased to present Him with an impossible situation. “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” (John 8:4-5).

When I read this my first question is, “Where’s the guy? Doesn’t it take two to tango?” The accusers really didn’t care anything about justice; they just wanted to trap Jesus and put Him to death. And on that day, they thought they finally had him. Instead of stepping into their trap, however, Jesus stooped to write something on the ground. Scholars have long debated what Jesus wrote that day, and we really have no way of knowing. We do know, however, that His words convicted the accusers and the crowd. The words formed by His finger somehow pointed a finger at each and every one of them.

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7).

Again Jesus stooped and wrote on the ground. I’d love to know what it was. If I had been there, I’ll bet my curiosity would have been followed closely by conviction. One by one, oldest to youngest, the people began to put down their stones and walk away in silence, until only Jesus and the woman were left. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:10-11).

This story brings back to me the words Jesus spoke to Nicodemus late one night: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him …Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light…” (John 3:17, 19). Jesus is the light of the world, but I see Him as more like a lamp in a lighthouse than like a policeman’s spotlight that catches a wrong-doer in the act. His light doesn’t judge, it reveals and invites us into His life.

Life Question: Can you think of one secret thing Jesus could write about your life that would cause you to let go of criticism and be more compassionate?