Whose Word Do We Trust?

Readings Here

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Numbers 21:4-9 · John 8:21-30

The Bible contains many strange commands.

A Syrian general named Naaman is told:

“Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and you shall be clean.”

He was a leper.

In the desert Moses tells the people:

“Look at the bronze serpent and you will live.”

They were dying from snake bites.

These instructions are not very convincing.

Water is just water.

Bronze is just metal.

The action itself has no power.

So why do people obey?

Because the real question is not about the action.

The real question is whether they trust the one who speaks.

Naaman must decide:

Does the prophet Elisha speak for God?

The Israelites must decide:

Does Moses speak for God?

Those who trust the word live.

Those who refuse remain as they are.

The same drama appears again in today’s Gospel.

Jesus says:

“Unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.”

In the Book of Exodus, “I AM” is the mysterious name God revealed to Moses in the burning bush.

Now Jesus uses the same words.

So the question becomes unavoidable.

Who is speaking here?

Is this simply a man from Nazareth?

Or does the invisible God speak through him?

Later he adds:

“When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.”

Many who heard him could not accept this.

But others believed.

And for them the answer changed everything.

Because if Jesus reveals the God who said “I AM,”

then listening to him means listening to God himself.

And that decision touches life itself.