And as the Great High Priest, Jesus, the Great I AM in human flesh and blood, who is before Abraham was, suffered and died and rose again to win for all His baptized children an eternal inheritance – an inheritance kept for those who hear and keep His words. Words such as: “Take and eat, this is my body, which is given for you.” Words such as: “Drink of this all of you, this cup is my blood of the New Testament which is poured out for you, for the forgiveness of sins.” Words of everlasting life, those are! Hear them, believe them, keep them, and live forever!
Amen
Okay, so Jesus said some outrageous things. And some of the outrageous things He said riled the Jewish leaders. Today’s Gospel is simply stuffed full of outrageous sayings of Jesus and, consequently, of the anger of the Jewish authorities.
So what did Jesus say? Well, how’s this for a start: “He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore, you do not hear, because you are not of God.” To belong to God, Jesus says, means to be among those who give ear to what God says. If you don’t give an ear, it’s a sure sign that you don’t belong to God. And the Jewish leaders, says Jesus, because they fail to listen to Jesus, don’t belong to God. Woah! Do you hear what He’s saying? He is equating listening to Him with listening to Yahweh. The Jewish leaders lay back their ears and howl in anger: “Don’t we rightly say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon!”
There are lots of folk out there, though, besides the Jewish leaders who would like to argue with Jesus on this one. “I am a good Christian” they say. But Jesus asks: “How are you doing in your hearing of God’s word, because that tells you whether or not you belong to God.” Ouch!
And we might ask, what’s so important about giving a listen to Jesus’ words? Well, listen to what else He said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”
“Get out of here,” the Jewish leaders scream. “Now we know that you have a demon and that you are mentally unhinged. Abraham is dead. The prophets are dead. And yet you, YOU, have the audacity to say ‘if anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death’? Who do you think you are, boy! Are you greater than our Father Abraham, who is dead? Who do you make yourself out to be?”
Oh, but Jesus meant just what He said. And although Abraham is dead to us, He is not in fact dead to God. He lives with God. And why does He live with God? Because He heard Jesus’ Word and kept it! Jesus is saying nothing less than that. The Words of the Bible, the Words that Abraham heard long ago, they are the words that Jesus claims belong to Him, and they speak of Him. And He claims that whoever keeps these words, treasures them and loves them and ponders them, will be delivered from death.
That’s a pretty powerful reason to give a listen to the words of Jesus, isn’t it? Because, His words are everlasting and give everlasting life. Do you remember how Peter confessed that? It was after last Sunday’s Gospel, the feeding of the 5,000. When the crowds followed Him, Jesus laid on them some teaching about the real presence of His Body and Blood. In fact He told them: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” When the crowds heard this they, like the Jewish leaders in today’s Gospel, threw up their hands in despair: “He’s crazy! He’s lost it!” they said and they left Him. And soon it was only Jesus standing there with the twelve. Jesus asks them: “Well, aren’t you going to leave too?” And Peter, blessed Peter, he says: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life!”
Words of eternal life. That’s what Jesus has. Outrageous words. Words that defy our preconceived notions. Words that destroy our prejudices. Words that shake us to the core and turn us inside out. Words that kill us dead. Words that raise us up to everlasting life. Jesus’ words. So, listen on!
Jesus says to the Jews: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” “OH, come one, Jesus! This is too much! You are not yet fifty years old, and you say that you have seen Abraham?” They are flabbergasted at this claim of His. But He has yet to say the most shocking thing of all, maybe the most startling words He would ever utter: “Most assuredly,” Jesus said, “I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
When He said that, there was silence for a minute. The shock of it. They couldn’t believe what their ears were hearing. It’s not just that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah. They could have stomached that. It was not just that Jesus claimed to have existed before Abraham. He didn’t say: “Before Abraham was, I was.” No. He said: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” He dared to use of Himself the name that properly belongs to God alone. A man of flesh and blood exactly like yours and mine, and He is saying that He is the God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. He is the God who rescued the people of Israel from their bondage in Egypt. He is the God who spoke to Abraham and called him from Ur of the Chaldees. He is THAT God now in human flesh and blood. His words give eternal life and deliver from death, because they are the Words of Him who IS everlasting Life! Of Him who Is before Abraham was.
When what Jesus was saying sank in, they scrounged around for rocks to throw at Him, to kill Him. It’s not that I AM in our flesh and blood wasn’t to die. Oh, no. He had come to die. He had come to destroy death itself by filling it with His indestructible life. But the time wasn’t fulfilled yet. He had more signs to do, more outrageous saying to impart, more words of life to speak. But the day did come when He was killed. The day when, as our epistle says, “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own Blood He entered the Most Holy Place once and for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”
