Sister Joan Irene

March 15, 2005 Jn 8:21-30

Jesus said to the Pharisees: "I am going away and you will look for me,
but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come." So the Jews said,
"He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come'?"
He said to them, "You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins." So they said to him, "Who are you?"
Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world."
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. So Jesus said to them,
"When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him." Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

Jesus tells them he is not of the world. The Father who has spoken to him will not leave him because Jesus has always done what is pleasing to the Father. "If you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins." The I AM is the same God that spoke to Moses Yahweh. Jesus is teaching us the faith in a very simple straightfoward way. Believe and be saved from your sins. Follow God and be lifted up from death. There is no guessing at the meaning. It is a fulfillment of the Hebrew Bible. Jesus is also saying here that his words are truth from God. Today I will "chew on" the meaning of "I AM" as a way to identify Jesus and God. I will also look at the ways that I have become more worldly and consider if they are ways that are in the service of God or not necessary selfish ways.