PHOTO: ANN RICKSON
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.
Jn 8, 58
Many scholars look to the Old Testament prophets for a background for Johns use of I am in passages like the one we read today. Deutero- Isaiah uses the same Hebrew form ego eimi that John uses in this verse, and the form is used to express YHWHs revelation of the Divine Self to the people.
When Jesus tells those who are questioning him about his claim to have seem Abraham, Jesus uses the same words as Dt-Isa to identify himself as the one who reveals the One who sent him. As Barrett says in Essays, Jesus is not instructing the Jews to Look at me because I am identical with the Father, but Look at me for I am the one by looking at whom you will see the Father, since I make him known (As quoted in the New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Johannine Theology 83:4).
Jesus continues to reveal the face of God to us, pointing not to himself, but to the one who sent him and to the work of brining Gods kingdom.
We can live our lives in a way that points not to ourselves, but to God.I think of people in my experience whose goodness and love drew me closer not only to them, but also to God. Saint John Newmans prayer expresses the desire to reveal Jesus to others, as Jesus revealed the One who sent him:
Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with your spirit and life.
Penetrate my being so that all my life
may only be a radiance of you.
Shine through me, and so be in me
that every person I come in contact with
may feel your presence in my soul.
Let them look and see no longer me,
but only Jesus.
Stay with me, and then I shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to be a light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from you;
none of it will be mine.
It will be you shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise you in the way you love best,
by shining on those around me.
Speak Your Mind