Gospel • Jn 8:51-59
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JESUS said to the Jews: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” So the Jews said to him,
“Now we are sure that you are possessed. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?”
Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”
So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty-years-old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.
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Jesus makes a claim that to the Jews is nothing but preposterous and even blasphemous: “Whoever keeps my word will never see death.” No prophet, not even the patriarch Abraham or Moses, would make that claim. Only the Lord God would. Thus Jesus is thought of as possessed or crazy. But Jesus can claim divine authority. His origin is from God.
He can then say, “Before Abraham came to be, I AM.” God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush with the declaration: “I am who I am… This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you” (Ex 3:14).
But John is not equating Jesus with the supreme God of the Old Testament. Jesus does not cling to his equality with God. He does nothing of his own, but says only what the Father taught him (cf Jn 8:28). But “I AM” (Greek ego eimi) draws Jesus to God in the strongest possible terms. He is the one people must look at, and listen to, if they would know God. Jesus shows his oneness with the Father by acting like an obedient servant, even to dying on the cross.
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SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2018,” ST. PAULS Philippines, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
