”Then you will realize that I AM.” | Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

So Jesus said to the Pharisees, “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.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus reveals to the Pharisees what is about to take place in his crucifixion. Jesus, the Son of Man, will be lifted up on the cross to die for the sins of all. By telling the Pharisees that unless they believe that Jesus is I AM—that is, Yahweh, God the Father—he invites them into his redemption through faith and repentance: “For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” In God’s love for his people, in that lifting up of Jesus on the cross, a paradox unfolds before all of humanity. The cross becomes an instrument of the resurrection. By dying, Christ destroyed death; by rising, he restored life. As Saint Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians: “For since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead came also through man.” The Pharisees question Jesus: “Who are you?” Far from being a remnant from the historical life of Jesus, this question is one that I can ask myself daily. But unlike the Pharisees, I have the benefit of knowing the answer through his resurrection. He is I AM.

God, I want to come to a greater understanding of what Jesus meant when he said to the Pharisees: “I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.” Your son sits at your right hand and belongs with you above. The Pharisees who belonged to the world did not recognize the blindness of sin and so would die with their sins in this world. Help me understand that you belong to what is above and that you also want me to die to this world through repentance so that I can rise to new life through your son. Help me realize that Jesus is I AM.

Lord, as you always do what is pleasing to your Father, help me do what is pleasing to you. Be with me today and increase my awareness that with you I am never left alone.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

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