Am that I Am

Ash Wednesday

February 6, 2008

Exodus 3:14

"God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.’"

These Lenten weekdays and Holy Week, we will take up the sayings of Jesus, in which He begins each with two words: "I Am."

Had you ever noticed that, whenever Jesus told us that He was the Good Shepherd, or the Gate, or the Vine, or the Light of the World, or the Way and the Truth and the Life, or the Bread of Life, or the Resurrection and the Life, He began each of those declarations with the two words, "I Am"—as in, "I am the Good Shepherd," and, "I am the resurrection and the life."

So what? We begin declarations with, "I am," all the time:

• "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired."
• "I am leaving for work."
• "I am ordering a pizza."

When we use I am in this fashion, we aren’t so much saying who we are as we are saying what we are doing or feeling.

When the Lord Jesus declares, "I Am," He is not saying what He is doing or feeling; He is saying who He is. He is teaching us about His essence, His existence, His person, His permanence.

In the fourth Gospel, the apostle John recorded Jesus making seven I Am declarations. Those, we will study, beginning two weeks from now. Next week, we will study a unique declaration that Jesus made, using the I Am formula.

When Jesus was debating the Jews, and they were saying that they were children of Abraham but Jesus was possessed by a demon, Jesus concluded His part of the argument with this little bit of information: "I tell you the truth: before Abraham was born, I am!"

Before Abraham was born, I Am. Now, what in the wide, wide world of sports is that supposed to mean? Abraham lived two thousand years before Jesus. How could Jesus exist before Abraham? The answer to that little query takes us to today’s topic, and back to the days of Moses.

Moses had fled Egypt. He was tending sheep for his father-in-law, having ranged to the mountain at Horeb. Moses saw a bush. It was burning. But, it wasn’t burning up.

From out of the bush came a voice. It was the angel of the Lord, who appeared to Moses and spoke to him.

Now, before we get to the words that were spoken, we need to answer: who is the angel of the Lord?

Notice the the before angel of the Lord. It isn’t simply an angel of the Lord. If it were an angel, it could be Gabriel, or Michael, or any one of God’s legions of angels. But, this angel is given the—the definite article—meaning that this angel is a one and only angel.

Before we determine who this angel is, we need to back up a bit more and understand what an angel is. Unlike a term like human being, which tells of the category, or classification, of people, the word angel does not speak of where angels fit into the scheme of created things. Rather, angel speaks of what angels do.

The word angel means messenger. Therefore, we could use the word angel in its strictest sense, to mean one of God’s beings whom He created to be servants to His children—like Gabriel and Michael—or, we could use the word angel in a wider sense, to mean a human being who delivers a message. We could say that what I am doing, right now, delivering a message of God’s Word, is the work of an angel. And, wouldn’t that be appropriate, because aren’t my sermons simply angelic?

So, since angel means messenger, a messenger can be anyone. Now, the one who spoke to Moses was called the angel of the Lord. And, in fact, this is not the only time, in the Old Testament, that this term is used. Several times, the angel of the Lord appeared to His people.

But, unlike Gabriel and Michael, this angel was not given a name. Or, was He?

From the burning bush, the angel of the Lord spoke. No, wait. It doesn’t say that, it says, "When the Lord saw that [Moses] had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush."

Well now, wait. Which was it? Was the angel calling from the bush, or was God? Before we answer that, let’s ask this: if it were God calling to Moses, exactly whom was it? Was it God the Father? Was it God the Son? Was it God the Holy Spirit?

If you are like me, you always assume that God the Father is the person of the Trinity who interacts with His people in the Old Testament days, before His Son, Jesus, is born into the world. It was God the Father, who walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, and who talked with Abraham, and who gave the commandments to Moses . . . right?

Sorry, no—but, thanks for playing our game. The Father is not the person of the Trinity who personally and intimately interacts with the world. It is the Son, who personally and intimately interacts with the world. We are taught in Colossians that this world was made by the Son and for the Son. It is the Son’s world, so the Son personally interacts with it.

It is the Son, who takes on your flesh. It is the Son, who proclaims the kingdom of God. It is the Son, who dies for your sin and is raised in justification of your sins.

And, it is the Son, in the person of Jesus, who declared, "Before Abraham was, I Am."

What was it, exactly, that the Lord told Moses, from the bush, when Moses asked Him whom he was to say was sending him to the Israelites? The Lord said, "I AM WHO I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you."

I Am. When God identified Himself to Moses, He called Himself, "I Am." When Jesus identified Himself to the Jews, He called Himself, "I Am." When Jesus taught that He was the Good Shepherd, and the Gate, and the Vine, and the Light of the World, and the Way and the Truth and the Life, and the Bread of Life, and the Resurrection and the Life, He began each of those declarations with those same two words, "I Am."

Jesus is the angel of the Lord. It was Jesus—the eternal Son of God—before He took on human flesh, who spoke to Moses from the burning bush.

Since Lent points us to our Lord’s Good Friday sacrifice and Easter Sunday victory, there is no better time to concentrate on Him.

When you thoroughly and properly know who Jesus is, you can all the better love Him. The better you love Him, the more serious you will be about confessing your sins and putting them aside, and desiring to serve Him by loving your neighbor as you love yourself.

Jesus is the God of Adam and Eve, and of Abraham, and of Moses, and of us. Fixing your eyes on Jesus, you live with His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation, given to you in the Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, which are made powerful by His blood.

Jesus is I Am—the eternal God, your Maker and Redeemer. Amen.