Word to the Wise
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Lent
[Numbers 21:4-9 and John 8:21-30]When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.
The fundamental message of the Gospel of John is that Jesus comes from the Father, reveals in himself the Father, and returns to the Father. The fundamental sin in the Gospel of John is the refusal to accept Jesus as coming from the Father, revealing the Father and returning to the Father. The first scripture of today from the Book of Numbers shows the image that Jesus used about Moses lifting up the serpent in the desert. Everyone who looked at the serpent lived. It is in seeing with the eyes of faith Jesus' being "lifted up" on the cross that all believers will live. This is why he tells his adversaries that they will die in their sins because they will kill him without seeing that it is themselves that they truly kill because they refuse the gift of eternal life that comes with faith. In the incident in Exodus 3 of Moses meeting God in the burning bush, God reveals the divine name as I AM. It is in accepting Jesus that we accept God because Jesus identifies himself as I AM. It is in seeing the crucified one as I AM that we enter into eternal life. Jesus uses the phrase many times in the Gospel of John both with and without further words: I AM the Bread of LIfe, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth and the Life, the Vine, the Light of the World - and in today's passage, simply I AM. Although we may not consciously recall the phrase, every time we look at a crucifix we are looking at the ultimate revelation about and from Jesus. This is not just A moment in his life, it is THE moment. It is more than removal of an image when in certain institutional circumstances the crucifix is taken down. It is removal of the truth. We need to think about that. The crucifix says I AM! Do we "see" it with the eyes of faith? AMEN
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