Before Abraham was, I Am: A Meditation on John 8 for Holy Trinity Sunday

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: 

and he saw it, and was glad.

Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, 

and hast thou seen Abraham?

Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, 

Before Abraham was, I am.

Then took they up stones to cast at him: 

but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, 

going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

One of the more difficult things to maintain in our time and place, is proper perspective.  We live in an era of cacophony, where words and pictures flood our senses nearly all the time.  The news networks run on 24 hour news cycles through both cable and the Internet, filling every moment of broadcast time with stories of greater or lesser importance.  Various communication mediums allow people to speak or write or share ideas on a whim, and make it easy for everyone to follow the whims of the people who post them.  Advertisers, movie and television producers, politicians, and every kind of huckster vie for your attention, your vote, and your dollars.  Most people now have devices in their homes and in their pockets which keep them connected to this stream of data at all times, constantly pushing into our eyes and ears words of variable veracity and worth.  In such a maelstrom of noise, it is no wonder that people lose their bearings and their perspective on what is really important, true, and necessary.

Take, for instance, the average driver these days who texts and operates their vehicle.  Moving in heavy traffic on the freeway or drifting along a country road, the proper focus is operating the vehicle in the world moving past-- to be conscious of the other drivers and obstacles which can be impacted by one's own vehicle.  Keeping all information in perspective, the driver would prioritize the lives of motorcyclists, pedestrians, a working mother in her car with her young children, over the endless stream of updates pulsing through her phone.  Sadly, too many people, either through an irrational addiction to their devices or a reckless disregard for the lives of others, kill themselves and thousands of others every year because they lost perspective on what is important at the moment.

While I don't think there's likely a good analog to texting and driving for first century Palestine (maybe donkey related accidents were up due to distracted scroll reading while riding...) Jesus was still trying to give His hearers better perspective.  Greek philosophy, various strains of folklore, pagan religious systems with all their various gods, political theory, news of intrigue and wars and revolutions, all competed for the Jewish people's attention.  They had been called together and into a nation by a God who made a promise to Abraham roughly 2000 years before Jesus' Incarnation, and as a people had undergone a variety of seasons both pleasant and terrible.  The Jews had at least 2000 years of recorded history (more, if traced through the earlier Fathers back through Noah and eventually Adam) and Moses who set that history into writing came roughly 1500 years before Jesus.  From Moses until Jesus' time, God had raised up heroic prophets, judges, kings, and deliverers, who bore God's Word to them and set before them the distinction between the way of life and the ways of death.  The Jewish people were the stewards of the oracles of God, unique upon the world's stage, and though sharing the same fundamental ancestry of all humanity, were called and gathered together in a peculiar way by the Word of God working among them.

Of course, God told Abraham that this blessing He was pouring out upon him was for more than just he and his descendants:  it would be for the whole world.  The Word of Life which came to Abraham 2000 years before Jesus was not just a local god with local intentions, but the Creator of the universe who had come to save all His people from the death and destruction they had brought upon themselves.  This God of Abraham knew that His fallen people could not maintain proper perspective between truth and error, good and evil, or even life and death.  He knew that Abraham, like all his kindred, were born into the world dead in their trespasses and sins, unable to breath into themselves eternal life, or rise above the cacophony of noise that the evil one poured out to distract them into everlasting hell.  The God of Abraham came to him knowing his weakness, and by the power of His Spirit working through His Word, gave Abraham the faith which would be counted as righteousness.  Abraham would be saved from death and hell, from his own ignorance and disordered desires, just as any and all would be from the beginning of the world to its end:  by the grace of God received by faith.

As Jesus talked with the Jews, He reminded them of Abraham.  2000 years earlier, God came to Abraham, and lived by faith in God's Word and promise of life.  Now among the Jews of first century Palestine, that same God came to speak His Word of life again, this time showing how He would fulfill this great salvation He had promised so many years before.  Jesus revealed Himself through His Words and His works to be the great I AM who appeared and spoke to Abraham, Moses, and the Prophets, who cleared away the confusion of lies and distortions, and who restored to mankind the way which leads to eternal life.  Jesus revealed Himself as the eternal Son of the Father, who with the Holy Spirit are of the same substance and divinity, yet eternally coexisting as One God in three Persons.  And as Jesus shows forth His great triumph through His death and resurrection, He becomes though His Cross the everlasting sign of our life and hope:  of the Most Holy Trinity dwelling among men for our salvation.

Of course, such a revelation demands a response.  Some, like the Jews to whom He was speaking, will prefer to live in their darkness unto death, taking up created stones with their created hands and hurling them at their Creator.  Some will ignore the Word of life as lunacy, discarding what has been the unique and crystal clear 4000 year testimony of the God who comes to save, believing rather the lies of a devil who happily leads them into everlasting chains.  Some will prefer to return to the suffocating cacophony of incoherent and endless data, rather than to listen any longer to the simple and eternal Word which would transform, enliven, and save them.  Some will prefer to lose their perspective and their souls, rather than have them restored by the One God to whom all things in heaven and earth are ultimately ordered.

But some will hear this Word of life, and believe.  Some will hear Jesus speaking to them through Abraham, Moses, and the Prophets, and through every faithful bearer of His Word down to our day.  Some will receive the life giving Word of Jesus by faith, trusting Him to be who He says He is and demonstrated Himself to be through His life, death, and resurrection.  Some will live by this faith in Jesus' Word, receiving the grace of forgiveness, life, and salvation which He gives them through His Cross.  Some will have their perspective restored by the only One whose perspective is greater than any created philosopher, politician, scientist, activist, or self proclaimed prophet.  Some will come to see that nothing can separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and that despite how it may look down here in a dark and dangerous world, the one who abides in the Word of Christ never really tastes death.  Some will come to understand by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, because He is the only begotten Son of the Father, who alone takes away the sin and death of the world.  Some will believe, and live forever.

Today, the Holy Trinity comes to you in the Person of Jesus Christ, whose Word is always accompanied by His Holy Spirit, that you might be reconciled to the Father by His grace through faith in Him.  This One God, now and forever, speaks His saving Word to you, that like Abraham you might live to see His Day with rejoicing and endless gladness.  Hear Him.  Believe, and live.  Amen.