The Past is Present

How many of you are familiar with the Back To The Future Movie series starring Michael J. Fox? Several months ago my wife and I introduced them to our family. They were far from being pure Christian entertainment, but I still find them enjoyable. The one that comes to mind this morning is Back To The Future II. It’s the one where an aged Biff takes a trip back in his past to visit himself when he was younger. When he meets his younger self, he gives him a sports almanac from the future. In it are all of the baseball and horse racing results throughout Biff’s future lifetime. Young Biff uses the almanac, betting on sports and consequently amassing a great deal of wealth in the process.

The concept isn’t too great for our minds to handle. There was no great controversy regarding the flick when it came out. Neither are any of its implications too great for us to grasp. In fact, I still hear my coworkers talk about this very sort of thing from time to time. The controversy steps in whenever we try to bring God into the equation. Any time that we bring God into any dialogue, the matter at hand immediately becomes significantly more contentious.

If we are able to envision some teenaged kid traveling throughout time in his Delorean, would it be a stretch to believe in a God who presently exists throughout time? I encourage you to think on the implications of Jesus statement here;

John 8:57-58 (New Living Translation)
57 The people said, “You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM!”

What we are seeing here is part of a dialogue between Jesus and the people at the temple where Jesus has been speaking. Since verse 31, He has been talking about ‘God’s true children’. He is speaking primarily to Jewish people who have descended through Abraham’s sons Isaac and Jacob. At one point, He accuses his audience of being children of the devil. John 8:44 It isn’t a pleasant discussion to begin with and the conversation meets its heated end with His words, ‘before Abraham was even born, I am.’

The language of His statement is rather peculiar and the implications might be rather profound. If He had merely said, “I was there before Abraham was born”, it might be easier to accept. We could handle a time travelling Jesus couldn’t we? Maybe He had His own Delorean and went back for a visit. We could also handle and ageless Jesus, having existed in time, since the beginning of time.

The phrase, ‘I Am’ is often looked upon as being one of God’s own names and it is. In fact, ‘I Am’ is the very title that God told Moses to use when speaking to the Jews in Egypt. However, there is more here than a name. As with many names, this name itself represents to us a certain truth about who God is. Jesus is also His name. If ‘I Am’ is nothing more than an arbitrary title, His statement at the temple really wouldn’t make any sense at all. How would it sound if He had have said, ‘Before Abraham was even born, Jesus’. It would be complete nonsense.

I Am - What? It’s bigger than saying, ‘I was there before Abraham was even born’. If He Was, it would imply that Jesus was little more than a really old guy. His ‘I Am’ statement is even bigger than saying, ‘I can go to the time before Abraham was even born’. He is neither the ‘I Was’ or the ‘I Can’, but the I Am. Right here and now, I Am there, even at the point in history before Abraham was born. Much more than a really old guy and much more than a time traveler, He claims to exist in this present time, throughout time itself.