John 8:54-59  Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ though you do not know him. But I know him, if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. 

To say the least, the Pharisees had a very contentious relationship with Jesus. They lived at the pinnacle of society, and they saw Jesus as a direct threat to their status, which was highly vaunted in respect to the everyday person of that time. 

They connected the dots immediately to Exodus 3:14 “I am that I am” as was revealed to Moses, and thus their virulent reaction. As Christians, we know and understand that Jesus was there with the Father from the beginning. 

In my own Christian walk, the more I study, the more seamless is the link between the Old and New Testaments. 

The verses in this podcast act as Christ’s segue to his other “I am” statements to make it so clear to the masses as to who he really was. 

Here’s a sampling of some of those to present clear pictures to the people that they could relate to in their daily lives: 

John 6:35 “I am the bread of life.” We all get hungry! We all can relate to that! Jesus is our spiritual sustenance. He will nurture and sustain us, in this life and the next. 

John 8:12 “I am the light of the world.” We all need to find our way, day or night! It was the same back then. At that time, you had a candle or a torch. Today we have any kind of flashlight, street light, or beacon to show the way, but if we listen to Jesus, God’s only son, his messenger sent here to earth, then we can find the way. 

The way is not always easy. There can be gloom, fog, rain, and hidden obstacles! Jesus is there for us! We can take our prayers of worry, concern, and/or gratitude to Him. He and his love are there for us. He commands us to share that same love with our brothers and sisters here on this earth. In doing so He will know us and gather us into heaven with the greeting of “Welcome, good and faithful servant! Even when you did those kind things to the least of them, you did it upon me!” Isn’t that really what it’s all about?

Let us pray: 

Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us so much that you sent your only Son to teach to love and to carry away the burden of our sin with His death on the cross. Give us the compassion to love one and other as you love us. Amen. 

This devotional was written and read by Sam Barto.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life. 

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: [email protected]. 

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.