The “I Am”
Statements
Looking at the 7 statements in John’s Gospel
Not Like the Others!
The I AM statements
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I am the Bread of Life (6:35)
I am the Light of the World (8:12)
I am the Door (10:7)
I am the Good Shepherd (10:11)
I am the Resurrection & the Life (11:25)
I am the Way, the Truth,
and the Life (14:6)
I am the True Vine (15:1)
I am the Bread of Life (6:35)
• Jesus is the true nourishment from heaven
o As the Father has life in him, so has the Son. (Jesus can do whatever the
Father can do).
• The Heavenly origin of Jesus is revealed
• The promise of eternal life marks Jesus as the
Messiah.
o The promised one.
o Linked with the Feeding of the 5000 is a symbol of the messianic banquet.
• The Key purpose of Jesus is that of life giver
o Moses also shared bread given from heaven. But this
did not give eternal life.
o The bread is not just spiritual – it is real – Jesus himself,
eventually given on the cross.
I am the Light of the World (8:12)
• Jesus applies to Himself the metaphor of light, which
stands for life.
o The follows the healing of the blind man and shows Jesus’ authority to
carry out his Father’s will to give both physical and spiritual light.
o This image of light and dark is very powerful throughout the bible.
• Jesus is the one who gives light
• His pre-existent heavenly origin is revealed.
o Jesus claims pre-existence to Abraham and does so
using the Divine Name ‘I am’.
• Jesus is the true Son of God
• He has come as the one with the words
of Life, the revealer of God’s truth.
I am the Door of the sheepfold (10:7)
• Focus on the ‘thief and robber’, and on the nature
of the flock.
• Strong links to the image of King David, as a boy,
defending his flock from wolves and lions.
o Note that sheep were not driven from behind but lead from the front.
• Jesus’ voice has authority
• Jesus as protector
o Shepherds would sleep at the entrance to the flock.
• Strong links to Jesus as good shepherd.
• Jesus as door between heaven and
Earth.
• The flock represents all those who
are ‘of the truth’.
I am the True Vine (6:35)
• Very common imagery in the ancient world
• Those who ‘remain in Me’ will bear good fruit
o Jesus has become the vine of Israel. The source of good fruit.
o He is the new Israel, the mark and seal of the people of God
• The connection between Jesus and the believers is
very close.
• Later in the gospel the necessity of painful testing
will happen. Links to pruning & cutting away dead
wood.
• The fruit could be: obedience,
good works, ‘growth & new life’,
prayer
I am the Resurrection and the Life (11:25)
• Linked to the raising of Lazarus
o Note ‘Johannine misunderstanding’ between Jesus & disciples, & Jesus
and Martha which allows Jesus to explain the radical concept of
resurrection.
• Jesus is the one who gives life to the dead by
calling their names.
o Jesus has life in Himself. Therefore, he can not only raise people but IS the
resurrection and life, Himself.
• Those who believe can ’see’ this.
o As Martha does calling Jesus, “The Christ, Son of God”.
• Note the human reaction – Jesus Weeps.
o Perhaps because of the lack of faith around him.
o Or because of the effects of Death, which is the
opposite of all that Jesus stands for.
I am the Way, the Truth & the Life (14:6)
• Jesus, Himself, is the Way.
o Not some sort of path in an afterlife, heaven.
o We will not get lost of we follow Jesus
o Jesus is not just a guide to salvation he IS the source of life and truth.
• Jesus is the truth
o We will not be deceived if we follow Him.
• Jesus is the life.
o For Jewish people the Torah (1st 5 books of the Bible) was the book of life.
Now Jesus becomes the life-giver.
• All Truth is God’s Truth, all Life is God’s life, but both
are incarnate (made flesh) in Jesus.
• Believers in Jesus are destined to
‘dwell’ with Him in His Father’s
home.
The Johannine Community
• The Gospel suggests at least 3 groups that the
community had to draw its boundaries against:
• The followers of John the Baptist
• The Jews, who had expelled those who believed in J from the synagogue.
• Other Christians, who had been followers of Jesus but who now separated
themselves from the community.
• John 4 alludes to the conversion of a significant number
of Samaritans. The coming of the Gentiles in John
suggests that the community had turned from a largely
futile mission to the Jews and sought to evangelize the
Gentiles.
o The figure of Peter as leader of the 12 appears to represent Christians of
apostolic communities outside the Johannine church. “The beloved disciple”
always appears better in the gospel than Peter.
o He is the one who never betrays Jesus and who is present at the foot of the
cross and who Jesus asks to take care of his mother.
• They may well have established themselves in Ephesus
after being thrown out of Palestine.
The Creed (Nicene)
I believe in one God, the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, of all things
visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
Through him all things were made. For us and
our salvation he came down from heaven and
by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the
Virgin Mary, and became a man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius
Pilate, he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day in accordance
with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven and is seated
at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and
glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the
life of the world to come.
Amen.
Jesus in the Catechism
• With Jesus one of us has arrived home with God
and remains there forever. In his Son, God is close to
us in a human way. (659-667)
• God’s Word is truth and his Law is truth. Jesus himself
vouches for God’s truth (214-217)
• God, who "dwells in unapproachable light", wants
to communicate his own divine life to the men he
freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in
his only-begotten Son. By revealing himself God
wishes to make them capable of
responding to him, and of knowing him
and of loving him far beyond their own
natural capacity. (52)
Jesus in the Catechism
• God has revealed himself fully by sending his own Son, in
whom he has established his covenant for ever. The Son
is his Father's definitive Word; so there will be no further
Revelation after him. (73)
• But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God
is love": God's very being is love. By sending his only Son
and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has
revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal
exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he
has destined us to share in that exchange. (221)
• Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of
sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is
eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally
Son only in relation to his Father: "No one knows the Son
except the Father, and no one knows the Father except
the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal
him." (240)