I Am The Way Series

And that brings us to today. Over the next nine weeks we are going to be looking at the different times in the book of John that Jesus said “I am”. And for those who care there are 22 separate instances where Jesus is recorded as saying “I am” in the gospel of John. In John 8:58 we see Jesus use “I AM” as a statement of existence. The statement lacks an object after the verb. In the other twenty one instances when Jesus says “I am” he means he is something, a predicate nominative follows the verb. Not in this case, he isn’t saying he is something, he is simply stating that he is.

Another ten of those instances are self-identification, times when Jesus said “I am” to identify himself. An example of that is found in John 18:4-5 when Jesus is arrested in the garden, Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked. “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I AM he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.)

In another 11 instances the statements are metaphorical, that is that Jesus describes himself by comparing himself to something else. “I am the gate”, “I am the vine”, “I am the bread of life.” And it is those metaphorical statements that we are going to be looking at over the next 8 weeks.

Have you ever gotten lost? I mean really lost? When I was a kid, probably 10 or so a buddy and I got lost in the woods where we lived. Not lost as in “call the police and dogs the kids are lost” type lost, but probably only a few hours from that point. Remember those were the days of “Have fun, be home by supper.” And we were home by supper, but just. We wandered in circles and tried to remember if moss grew on the north side of trees or the south, we probably figured out that the sun set in the west but we weren’t sure which way home was. Now in retrospect, being lost in the woods in Lincoln New Brunswick for four or five hours probably isn’t the same as being lost in the woods in Alaska, but when you are ten it sure seemed like it.

And what my buddy and I wanted more than anything else right then was to find “the way” home. We had already eaten all of our provisions that we had packed, a couple of cans of sardines and some crackers and knew that if we didn’t find our way out by supper that we would probably starve to death and then get spanked. And then we stumbled onto a path that led us back to the main road, we were saved. But as scary as being lost in the woods can be, or for that matter lost in the city or lost in the mall being lost in life is even scarier.

In the scripture that was read for us earlier Jesus has told his apostles about a wonderful place that waited for them. He told them that he would go and prepare a place for them, and it would be a wonderful place in the presence of God. And it is a great promise, a promise of home. You probably are very familiar with the passage, it is often read at the funeral of Christians. John 14:1-2 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” And if you are old enough then you might know it from the King James version where it says John 14:1-2 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. Which led to some really cool songs like “Mansion over the Hilltop”. Now if we get to pick where we are going to live in heaven you can skip the mansion I would prefer a house boat or really cool a tree house, I always wanted to live in a tree house, but again I digress.