UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

John 8:31–59 

Focus verse: ‘Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”’ (John 8:58) 

Old Testament lens: ‘“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you …” So Abram went …’ (Genesis 12:1,4) 

In the film Back to the Future,(1) Marty McFly travels through time in a DeLorean car, visiting both the past and future. One moment he’s in 1985, the next he’s talking to his parents as teenagers in 1955, or seeing his children in 2015. It’s all fun and fascinating, but clearly fantasy. 

Time travel makes for great storytelling, but when Jesus speaks in John 8:58, ‘Before Abraham was, I am’, he’s not playing with science fiction. He’s making a far deeper, more shocking claim. He is not from a point in history, He is above it. In this passage, Jesus is speaking to a group of Jews who, like us, see Abraham as the father of their faith. Abraham lived about 2,000 years before Jesus, and now, Jesus is standing there saying that Abraham ‘rejoiced to see my day’. Naturally, people are confused and offended. They respond, ‘You’re not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’ (v57). They think Jesus is claiming to have somehow travelled back in time, and they mock him for it. But Jesus isn’t saying He visited Abraham. He’s saying something far greater: He existed before Abraham, not as a time traveller, but as the eternal Son of God. When Jesus says, ‘Before Abraham was, I am’, he’s using the very name God revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ This isn’t a cryptic phrase; it’s a bold declaration of divinity. The Jews listening understood the weight of this, which is why they picked up stones to kill Him. They believed He was committing blasphemy. 

They claim they don’t need freedom because they’re descendants of Abraham. Their confidence lies in their heritage, not in Jesus. Jesus responds sharply: if you were really Abraham’s children, you would do the works Abraham did. What were those works? Genesis gives us the answer. In Genesis 12, Abraham obeys God’s call to leave everything and go to an unknown land. In Genesis 15, he believes God’s promise about countless descendants, and it’s counted to him as righteousness. Abraham listened, believed, and obeyed. He welcomed the Word of God, even when it disrupted his life. 

In contrast, Jesus says the people before Him are doing something entirely different: they’re trying to kill the one who speaks the truth from God. Instead of faith, they show hostility. Paul has a similar argument in Galatians 3, insisting that true children of Abraham are those who have faith in Jesus, not merely those with Abrahamic blood. The heart of the matter is this: do we receive the Word of God when it comes, even when it challenges our assumptions and comforts? Do we believe like Abraham, or resist like the crowd? 

The Early Church Fathers who inspired the Celtic Church 

Origen of Alexandria (c184–c253) 

‘Be a follower of the Scriptures, not of men.’(2)

This is a paraphrase of a well-known quote from Origen that urged Christians to seek truth in God’s Word rather than human opinions. He was one of the most influential early Christian theologians, and had a profound impact on Christian theology and biblical interpretation across the wider Christian world, including the Western Church. Origen was a master of allegorical interpretation of Scripture, believing that the Bible should be read on multiple levels — literal, m oral, and spiritual. This method of reading Scripture became central in monastic theological traditions. It has an indirect influence on the Celtic Church, especially its monastic centres like Iona and Lindisfarne, which were steeped in deep and scriptural study. The connection was John Cassian, who preserved and transmitted Origen’s ideas to the Latin West, and to Ambrose and Augustine who also used allegory. Origen’s methods likely trickled down to Celtic biblical traditions.

Although some Celtic Christian views on the end times were shaped by pre-Christian influences that prefigured later Catholic doctrines of purgatory, there was a fundamental motivation in their approach in reading scripture to have humble, holy and hungry hearts, to hear, recognise and receive ‘The Living Word’ and to obey. 

There was a longing in the Celtic saints to encounter Jesus and to be transfigured to be like Him. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, ‘But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the image from glory to glory.’ They believed that going from glory to glory means we’re looking more and more like Him, that we’re actually being transformed into the likeness of Christ, reflecting God’s glory more and more. This was the focus of the Celtic saints who were influenced by Origen.

John 8:54 says, ‘My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.’ The Celtic saints were open to see the Father glorify Jesus as they read the Scriptures. They read the Old Testament seeing those Scriptures figuratively revealing Jesus Christ. They did this while living monastic lives stripped of distractions in the wilderness places of Ireland — the bogs, the islands and the caves — seeking to encounter God, to be transfigured in glory. The goal of this ascetic life was union with God, participation in divine life, and restoration of the image of God in man. 

Origen developed the idea that humans are called to become like God through participation in Christ. Origen wrote in his Commentary on John (Book 2.2): ‘The Son of God became man that man might become God.’ This is one of the earliest formulations of what later theology called theosis. 

REVIVAL

If Jesus did exist before Abraham, do we believe that Jesus could have spoken through the Old Testament? The Church Fathers believed that the Old Testament frequently figuratively revealed Jesus Christ, in ways we often don’t today. Origen was a master of allegorical interpretation of Scripture, and believed that the Bible should be read on multiple levels — literal, moral, and spiritual. 

In the New Testament we read that Jesus’ listeners went away perplexed, and it was often pride in the imagination of their hearts that hindered them from seeing Jesus. They believed He was committing blasphemy. They could not receive Jesus the Living Word of God because He challenged their assumptions and comforts. Do we write off allegorical interpretation because we are proud of our Enlightenment rationalism? Are we willing to read Scripture at multiple levels at times like Origen and the Celtic saints … or not? 

PRAYER

May we be followers of Scripture and not of men. Help us to receive the Word of God when it comes, even when it challenges our assumptions and comforts. Jesus, You are the Word, the Life, the Ancient of Days. Not born of the world, but the Lamb ever near. Lord, give us humble, holy and hungry hearts to hear recognise and receive You, the Living Word, and to obey.

Before Abraham was… I AM ( CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW TO LISTEN TO SONG)

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(1) Wright, N.T. John for everyone, Part 1, SPCK (2002), 128, 129.

(2) Origen, On First Principles. (Translated by GW Butterworth). Wipf and Stock (2012)