From the Pulpit: "I Am"

For this and following three weeks of “From the Pulpit” I will be sharing with you some thoughts that come from a weekly Bible study that we had here at Spirit of Truth Lutheran Church this summer. Our Wednesday Bible study focused on the “I Am” sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of John, but we began with a “look” at a conversation between Moses and God that is found in the book of Exodus (chapter 3), a conversation that I invite you consider.

When Moses tried to put his life in Egypt behind him, he fled to a land called Midian; a place where Moses was confronted by God on a mountain in the wilderness. Moses saw a bush on the mountain that was burning but was not consumed by the fire. When he went to investigate, God called to him from the bush. God told Moses that He was choosing Moses to return to Egypt and go to Pharoah (the leader of Egypt) and tell Pharoah to set the people of Israel free, people that Pharaoh had enslaved in Egypt.  

Moses was not quick to be willing to go along with God’s plan, however. He had questions. He had concerns. One of his first questions was to ask God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God told Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” Then God said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

From that time on the people of Israel referred to God by that name, which is spelled in Hebrew with the capital letters YHWH (pronounced as Yaweh). When the name ‘Yaweh’ is used in our English bibles, it is typically read: ‘LORD’.

As we will see the rest of this month (and as the Gospel of John tells us), Jesus often used that designation “I AM” when he told the people about himself. He said things like: “I AM the Bread of Life”, “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life”, “I AM the Resurrection”, and several other “I AM” sayings. By using the “I AM” designation repeatedly, Jesus was making it clear to all those who were aware of the name that God shared with Moses that Jesus is One with the Father, that he is God. One of the times people had gathered around Jesus, after he told them, “I AM the Good Shepherd”, he said to them, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) Jesus is not simply a wise, important person. He is God. And because he is God, what he does for us is what only God can do – giving eternal life to all those who trust in him.