"The I AM Statements of Jesus 2"
I'm sometimes told that Jesus never called himself God. The reasoning goes like this: apart from using the "I AM" formula, Jesus never once explicitly used the word "God" to describe himself. But did you know Jesus once referred to himself as "God" in a story he told his disciples? Matthew 20:15 says, "Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?" (NJKV).
Matthew 20:1-16 records Jesus' parable about a landowner: a wealthy man has a vineyard and needs workers, so he hires people throughout the day all the way up to closing time and then pays them all the same wage. Obviously, the workers who were hired first were upset that they worked all day and got paid the same amount as someone who worked for only an hour (Matthew 20:12). But the landowner encouraged the workers who felt insulted to take their wages, giving the reason, "Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?" Jesus' punchline is that the last will be first and the first will be last in the kingdom of God (Matthew 20:16). But the reason for this parable is due to Jesus' disciples thinking it was impossible for anyone to be saved, if indeed a rich man would refuse to give up his possessions in order to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:23-30). Jesus' specific answer was, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26), and then he proceeds to tell a story about what God can do.
But the story in Matthew 20 is about himself: Jesus is the landowner who invites all kinds of people to join him in his vineyard! And to ensure that nobody misses that Jesus is calling himself God, Jesus puts these words in the mouth of the landowner (who represents Jesus): "Is your eye evil because I AM good?" Jesus uses the expression "I AM" to refer to himself as the good God - something he had already said about God in Matthew 19:17.
Friends, Jesus was not afraid to identify himself as God. We need God to be our savior, and you can trust Jesus to use his goodness, kindness, and deity to save you and partner with you.
God bless,
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
