Jn 8:21-30
21[Jesus] said to [the Pharisees] again, “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.” 22So the Jews said, “He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?” 23He said to them, “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. 24That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.”
25So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning. 26I 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.” 27They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. 28So Jesus said [to them], “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. 29The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” 30Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
HE WAS SPEAKING TO THEM of THE FATHER: The Prologue of John tells us about Jesus’ origin. He was from God in the beginning, and then God sent him, his Son, to the world. Even as a man, as Jesus of Nazareth, he does not lose his divinity: he is the reflection of the Father’s glory. Obviously, this cannot be understood by those who belong “to this world.”
In the discussion with the religious leaders in Jerusalem during the feast of Tabernacles, Jesus identifies himself consistently with the Father who sent him. He even refers to himself as I AM, the divine name by which God revealed himself to Moses (Ex 3:14). Jesus then proclaims his intimate relationship with the Father who sent him. He trusts in the Father. Always obedient to the Father’s will, Jesus is confident that the Father will never abandon him. Jesus confesses that the unbelievers will crucify him (they will “lift him up”) and his closest disciples will abandon him, but he will never be alone because the Father will be there for him. In fact, his crucifixion will turn out to be another “lifting up,” this time by the Father who will give him glory, the glory that he had in the beginning. Thus, it will truly be clear why he can say “I AM.”