Some years ago, a fast-food restaurant chain was having personnel problems. The leaders came up with an ingenious plan for dealing with the situation. Several upper-management members disguised themselves as low-level workers and took jobs in several of the restaurants. These workers-in-disguise watched what was happening from the inside perspective. At a certain point, they showed up for work with a fresh haircut, dressed in an expensive suit and revealed who they really were. Incompetent managers and workers were exposed! The plan worked!
God, realizing that there is a serious “personnel problem” on earth, planted his own son as a “human in disguise” among the lowly people, Israel. In the beginning he looked like any other baby born to poor parents. As he grew up he was just an ordinary boy in a God-forsaken village called Nazareth. When he reached the age of thirty, he began to manifest unusual charisms—teaching, healing, driving out demons. He drew the attention of the religious authorities; they didn’t like the way this unknown nobody was getting so much attention from the people and threatening their system.
At a certain point he began to reveal who he really was. (John 8:21-30).
“Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘I am going away, and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.”
This got the attention of his listeners.
“So the Jews said, ‘He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, “Where I am going you cannot come.”
Jesus continued:
“You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world.
Now they really began to wonder. If Jesus did not belong to this world, where did he come from, Mars? How was it that he came from “above,” and they were in the “below” region? Jesus continued:
“For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” So, they said to him, “Who are you.”
By identifying himself as “I AM” he was putting himself on the level of God. As he began to reveal his true identity, they began to question his true identity. So, they asked him “Who are you?” They recognized in Jesus someone not of this world.
Then Jesus began to answer the question directly.
“What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.”
Religious behavior based on the Law was not enough to be saved. As long as they rejected God’s son and relied upon their own brand of belief, they were condemned.
“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. The one who sent me is with me.”
Jesus and the Father are one even though they are different persons. So much was Jesus united to the Father, that he could do nothing but what the Father directed.
“Because he spoke this way, many came to believe.”
There was such power and truth coming out of Jesus, that many (of the Pharisees?) came to believe.
Do we realize that this same Jesus is with us now—though in disguise. Do we believe that he truly is “I AM?”
“When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself” (John 12:32).
