21 Jesus said therefore again to the religious leaders, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins. Where I go, you can’t come.”

22 The Jewish leaders therefore said, “Will he kill himself, that he says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come’?”

23 He said to them, “You are from beneath. I AM from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. 24 I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I AM he, you will die in your sins.”

25 They said therefore to him, “Who are you?”

Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. 26 I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world.”

27 They didn’t understand that he spoke to them about the Father. 28 Jesus therefore said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM he, and I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things. 29 He who sent me is with me. The Father hasn’t left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

30 As he spoke these things, many believed in him.

John 8:21-30 - World English Bible

Sometimes people do not talk with each other, but beyond each other. Each side does not seek a common understanding but only wants to address their own side. Jesus and the religious leaders had such an encounter.

Just as Jesus pointed to the source of his being and mission in John 7:28, now he would speak of his final destination. Unlike their pagan neighbors who saw time within the cycles of nature, Jews in the first century AD viewed time as a linear progression, with a beginning and an end, The Lord placed himself within that great vision of time (Revelation 1:8, 21:6, and 22:13 stated he was "the Alpha and the Omega). He came from the Father; now, he would return to the Father, along with those who believed in him. The skeptics and haters among the leaders would "die in their sins" (i.e., they would not enter the Kingdom). They, however, didn't understand him; instead, they speculated about his suicide. At this point, he tried to explain his origin; he was I AM (8:23-24) who came from above, from the Father. The leaders were born into a world of sin and corruption. The only way to escape their fate was trust in him.

"Who are you?" they demanded. This was not only a question of identity, it was an inquiry into the place Jesus had in their world. He just didn't fit in. He certainly addressed their world with the words of the Father, but finally brought many of them to faith with the phrase "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM he, and I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things" (8:28). In John's theology, the moment of the crucifixion was the moment of revelation and the moment of faith; it was the "hour" of his glory. When the leaders lifted him up on the cross, the Son of Man revealed YHWH as a self-giving deity, a Father ready to sacrifice his own Son for the good of the world. The cross also revealed his utter dependence on the Father, even in death giving himself to his God. This dual gift of the Son to the Father and the Father to the world define the meaning of "I AM" for the followers of the Christ.

Who was this Jesus? He was "I AM." If the leaders couldn't grasp that insight, they would never understand.

Look on a crucifix. What do you see?