I AM--Jesus

What use are men and lanterns and torches and weapons against the Most High God?  He spoke these men into being, yet now they challenge Him with a few scraps of metal and little plumes of flame?

Jesus is mighty, and He showed the men that much.  When Judas' band of soldiers first approached, He asked them an obvious question.

"Whom do you seek?"
"Jesus of Nazareth," they replied.
And Jesus said to them, "I am He."

Do you hear the echo of Exodus 3 in Jesus words?  "I AM WHO I AM" was the Name for Himself that God revealed to Moses from the burning bush.  Here in John 18, the same God speaks His identity from a human mouth.  "I am He."

God's holiness in Exodus shone like fire from the bush and compelled Moses to remove His shoes.  When Jesus Christ spoke His Name, the band of soldiers "drew back and fell to the ground."  John even makes a point of telling us that "Judas, who betrayed Him, was standing with them"--and when God's holiness bowled them over, Judas too fell on his face.

At this point, the soldiers had to be very afraid.  Sure, Jesus didn't look as terrifying or mysterious as an unconsumed bush glowing with flames.  He was the same Jesus of Nazareth whom they had seen before, walking their streets and eating among their people.  But God's power was clearly present with this man.  The soldiers and Judas were still lying prone in the shock of Divine power when Jesus asked them again,

"Whom do you seek?"
Again they replied, "Jesus of Nazareth."

Note the difference between the two statements of Christ's identity.  "I am He"--bursting with the power and holiness of God.  "Jesus of Nazareth"--commonplace and chock-full of basic humanity.

Yet Jesus of Nazareth was the Jesus who remained, and the Jesus who would breathe his last later that night. After revealing His awesome power, Jesus has a different response to their second statement of His Name.

Jesus answered, "I told you that I am He.  So, if you seek Me, let these men go."

No fight in these words.  The God who threw a band of strong men on their faces with only the words of His mouth now submitted as they bound him and led Him away.  Even when His disciples tried a vain attempt at insurrection, Jesus forbade it.

Jesus of Nazareth, the Great I AM had His mind made up from the beginning of time.

"Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given Me?"

It was for you and for me that He drank this cup.  It was the cup of God's wrath--the cup of death.  And so that we would not die but live, the Great I AM became confined to the lifespan of a finite person.

His death was possible because He was Jesus of Nazareth.  Your forgiveness is possible because He died.
His resurrection was possible because this man was the Great I AM.  And because the Man Who Is God rose from the dead, we can have eternal life!

We worship Jesus in wonder, for He is the I AM who is a man.