I Am
I am the bright and morning star, the resurrection and the life, the true vine, the bread of life, the good shepherd, the way, the truth and the life, the gate, Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.
Saint John, Revelation
Design by Michael Podesta
9.5 x 13
I am the bright and morning star, the resurrection and the life, the true vine, the bread of life, the good shepherd, the way, the truth and the life, the gate, Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.
Saint John, Revelation
Design by Michael Podesta
9.5 x 13
I am the bright and morning star, the resurrection and the life, the true vine, the bread of life, the good shepherd, the way, the truth and the life, the gate, Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.
Saint John, Revelation
Design by Michael Podesta
9.5 x 13
Behind The Art
Who is Jesus?
What colossal claims. Others have pointed out the way, have given us guidelines and examples. But this is totally different. Instead of “This is the path to perfection”, He says “I am Perfection, and I am also the Path to Perfection”. The premise is that Truth, which had always been objective, became – shockingly, scandalously – an actual human being.
So, what are we to make of these I AM statements? They are so direct, so absolute. They are like the passage in John 10:30 where Jesus says flat out “The Father and I are One”. Such an assertion cannot be dismissed or avoided. So, how do we respond? Do we say “You may be a great teacher, a spiritual master, but ‘one with God’? Isn’t that a bit much? Or do we recognize His claims as unequivocal, allowing no neutral middle ground. He must be everything He claims to be – or else a lunatic and a liar.
In Matthew 16:15 Jesus asks Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” “You are Christ, the Son of the Living God,” Peter responds. “Right,” says Jesus, “and you didn’t figure that out on your own, either. My father in Heaven revealed it to you.”
As we earnestly confront that same question – Who is Jesus? – I like to think that the answer could, just possibly, come to us as readily and as unmistakably as it did to Peter.
—Michael