“JUDICA 2024”
Saint John 8: 46-59
Judica: 17 March Anno Domini 2024
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
The truth never really hurts those who are believers in Messias. It stings, and yes, The Law kills. But for the ones IN CHRIST, the ones who have Christ IN THEM, the truth is Jesus—The Way and The Life.
The ancient Greeks (among others) valued the true, the good and the beautiful. But note well, these three do not always accompany one another at the outset. Sometimes the beautiful is fake, an illusion, only a surface facade. Many times, maybe most, the truth does not always seem good. Sometimes individuals want things their way not the true way. For them, good is coterminous with ME!
As to those who do not believe Jesus—then, and now—those who do not hear His Words; they are not of God Christ says. They have a different God, whether it be history, archeology, logic, physics, astronomy, nature…whatnot.
Who do you say that Jesus is? The question is for you not just for the “12” first asked 2,000 years ago. Many pagans, heathens, atheists are willing to concede that an historical character by the name of Jesus of Nazareth existed in first-century Palestine. Well, that is a good start I guess; ‘a’ truth.
The Jews who beheld Him and interacted with Him called Him a Samaritan. What they meant by that insult was that He was not a true Israelite/Hebrew/Judean Jew; i.e., He was illegitimate both in ethnicity and paternity. They were calling Him a bastard and His mother, The Blessed Virgin, a prostitute. The Jews of 2024 make the same blasphemies.
But there was truth in their slander. Jesus though a true son of David, of Abraham, of Adam, of God, born in Bethlehem of Judea, was indeed THE GOOD SAMARITAN. He is the one that rescues Israel that believes, and all of you the New Jerusalem, The Church which comes down from above.
And of course, The Christ had neither devil nor any connections to Beelzebub (Satan) save for the fact that He cursed the devil in the Garden, He battled with him throughout the pages of Hebrew Scripture, and He resisted Him in the 40 days of desert warfare before crushing the serpent’s head at Calvary!
Jesus honors His Father. Jesus prayed to His Father. And you do likewise. To honor The Father, to Honor “God,” the Blessed Trinity, is to worship—believe, teach, and confess that Jesus is Lord and God. No one comes to The Father but by Jesus [Jn. 14.6].
Before one gets to the work of The Christ one must acknowledge the person of The Christ. Again, who is He?
The God/Man from Galilee stated that father Abraham rejoiced to see [His] day; and…saw it, and was glad. Literally or figuratively? Yes. Abraham had been with The Son of God for centuries before The Son was incarnate and delivered in a stable.
Thus, the conundrum, the clash, the loggerheads between unbelievers and Christians. Between the Jews and Jesus.
The Word answers your questions as it did the complaints of the Jews. Who is He? He tells you: “verily, verily, (truly, truly) I say unto you, before Abraham was, I AM.” On the literal level Christ is saying that He, as The Son of God, before He had a corporeal and physical body (which He STILL HAS) existed. He existed before Abraham was born. Only faith receives this Truth as good and beautiful. The unbeliever—Jew or Gentile, will reject this because it goes against “sight.” The Nazarene looked to be about 30 years old. On the deeper theological level—though still literally true—Jesus is giving them and you, His Name. In His Name is His essence, identity, and eternal being. I AM.
The Greek which Saint John uses is ego emi and means I AM. The Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) also translates God’s revealing word as ego emi, in Exodus 3.14. This is what The Son of God spoke to Moses from the burning bush; this was the pre-incarnate Christ was telling Moses what His Name/Person/Being was: I AM that I AM. The Masoretic text is also helpful in the definition. The Son is telling Moses, Jesus later is telling the Jews, Jesus is telling you Who The Lord is. The Hebrew word is four consonants—Y, H, W, H. It is referred to as The Tetragrammaton—the four writings or marks. Definition? He Who brings to pass, He Who brings into being, the One Who simply IS. It is an imperative Hebrew word that while meaning “pure being,” pure “IS” (which Lutherans resonate with—is means is) also means omnipotence according to the great Rev’d Dr. Horace Hummel (R.I.P.).
The Jews knew what he meant—that this Rabbi was saying “I AM GOD!” They were correct. That is what Christ was speaking. That is your faith; that is The Faith.
But now an even greater revelation, a New Testament codicil to the great gift of Christ. You do not refer to your God—your God/Man as YHWH, or as the I AM. As the Archangel spoke to the Virgin: “thou…shalt call His Name Jesus” [Luke 1.31]. Jesus—i.e., The Savior, The Saving One. And about this Saving One, Esaias wrote: “a virgin…shall bear a son and call His Name Immanuel,” which means God with us! God!
Not only The Lord in a bush that burns and is not consumed; not only as The omnipresent Tetragrammaton; but as The Body and Blood God/Man immanent here at this pulpit, font, and altar—existing, inherent, remaining. AM! IS!
And now for you—The “…Name which is above every Name; that at The Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Christ is Lord, to the glory of God The Father” [Phps. 2. 9-11].
That is your God. In His Name, and in His Body and Blood, He obeyed the Law in your stead; and He suffered and died on the cross in your place and for your trespasses. The Resurrected and Saving One has now given you His own Name. And in keeping that “saying,” that Name, “[you] shall never see death.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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