I went too fast last week. Sorry. Let’s go back and spend two or three blogs on the who and what of Jesus because for me, getting this straight has a big impact on how I view myself. In John’s gospel, he describes Jesus’ encounter with a Samaritan woman whose knowledge of God is derived solely from the Pentateuch. She thinks the difference between her and Jewish Jesus is where God is to be worshipped. Jesus tells her, “God is Spirit,” and is to be worshipped “in spirit and truth.” (Jn. 4: 24) The woman responds that she knows the Messiah is coming and will explain everything when he comes. Jesus then replies, “I am, the one who is speaking to you.” (Jn. 4:26)
What is quite significant for me, and maybe for you, is Jesus’ use of the two words, “I am,” to identify himself. All the English bibles I reference (NIV, NRSV, KJV and Roman Catholic) translate the statement with the predicate “he”, as “I am he”, thus identifying for the woman that Jesus is the Messiah she anticipates. But this predicate does not exist in the Greek. Jesus simply says ὲγώ εὶμι which translates “I am.” Use of the implied predicate narrows what Jesus actually said and meant. He did not just mean to identify himself as the Messiah, but more so to transcend that status of male humanity (he) to that of God which the woman would recognize as God’s identification of Godself to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” (Ex. 3: 14). Paraphrasing the Nicene Creed, “eternally begotten…true God from true God…of one being with the Father.”
Further, God describes Godself as Holy, instructs God’s people to be holy and informs them of the behavior holiness requires (Lev. 11:44-45 and 19: 1-35). If God is spirit as Jesus asserts, then God’s spirit is a Holy Spirit. Thus, the spirit in Jesus is the Holy Spirit. Now I wonder, what does all that have to do with me? Do I have a spirit? Is it holy? Can it become holy? Does that matter or is my behavior all that matters? More next week.