Thoughts for the Day

* The 4th year anniversary of these Thoughts occurs on 24th March 2024 - I would love to hear from you all, to help me keep going for another year!

Jesus said, 'Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.’ The Jews said to him, ‘Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, “Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.” Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, “He is our God”, though you do not know him. But I know him; if I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.’ 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.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Society (at least in the UK) has a number of bad habits. One of them is praising someone to the skies, before bringing them down at some point. In the early days of this adulation they can't do anything wrong, but in the end they can't do anything right! It's as though sometimes we can't see the truth, and need new glasses!

The same thing happened with Jesus. Thousands of people had been following Jesus around the countryside. They had seen how he healed the sick, the lame, the blind, and the deaf. But those same people who were praising Jesus to the skies because of his work were shortly going to reject him on Good Friday. Those who confronted him in the Temple had also seen or heard of Jesus, and especially because of the healing of the lame man at the pool on the Sabbath in Jerusalem (John 5.1-16). But the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Herodians simply could not see any good in Jesus, believing him to be a rabble-rouser and blasphemer, and they would shortly engineer his death.

Perhaps the most important sentence in today's reading is this: 'Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am." He doesn't say "I was", but "I am". This should remind us that when Moses asked God or His name, God answered: "I am who I am!" (Exodus 3.14). God is eternal, there has never been a time when He didn't exist. Jesus, the man was born as a human baby, and was eventually crucified and died. For Christians, the only being who is eternal is God, so when Jesus informs his listeners that there has never been a time when he did not exist, he claims that position. In Jesus we see not just a man, but we see the eternal face of God.

Lord Jesus Christ,
help us to see the truth,
that though You were born as a man
and lived among us on earth,
You were nevertheless the eternal God
who loves and cares for us,
and who died to save us from our sin.
May we keep this faith bright in our heart,
that we do not turn away from You
even in times of difficulty.
Amen.