Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Genesis 17:3-9 · Psalm 105 · John 8:51-59
The story begins with an old man.
His name is Abraham.
God makes him a promise.
You will become the father of many nations.
Your descendants will receive a land.
And through you something much larger will begin.
A covenant.
A relationship between God and a people.
Centuries pass.
Abraham’s descendants grow into a nation.
They are led out of Egypt.
They enter the promised land.
Psalm 105 looks back on this history and says something simple:
God remembered his promise.
What he promised to Abraham he fulfilled.
But the promise to Abraham was never only about one nation.
From the beginning it pointed toward something larger.
A blessing meant for all nations.
And this is where the Gospel takes us.
Jesus says something surprising:
“Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
His listeners are confused.
“How can that be?” they ask.
“You are not even fifty years old. How could you have seen Abraham?”
Then Jesus answers with a sentence that changes everything:
“Before Abraham was, I AM.”
These words echo something very ancient.
When Moses asked God for his name at the burning bush,
the answer was:
“I AM.”
Now Jesus speaks the same words about himself.
And suddenly the promise to Abraham looks very different.
If what Jesus says is true,
then the story that began with Abraham finds its center here.
The God who made the promise
is now standing among them.
Not in a burning bush.
Not in a temple.
But in a human life.
The Gospel leaves us with the same question that confronted those who first heard him.
Who is this man?
A teacher?
A prophet?
Or the one who stands at the beginning of the promise itself?
From Abraham to Jesus the story of the covenant unfolds.
And in Christ that promise opens outward.
The family of Abraham now includes all who believe.
And the promised land becomes something greater still:
a new heaven and a new earth.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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