“Abraham and Jesus”
Rev. Rolf Preus| The Fifth Sunday in Lent| March 22, 2026| John 8:58
“Jesus said to them, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.’”
During this latest war in the Middle East, there has been considerable debate in our country about America’s relationship with Israel. Not just a political debate, but a theological debate as well. What, if anything, does the Bible teach us about the state of Israel? Does the Bible address what America’s relationship with Israel should be?
The U.S. ambassador to Israel, a Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas by the name of Mike Huckabee, has repeatedly and publicly promoted the idea that God will bless America if America blesses Israel. He bases his belief on these words from Genesis 12:1-3,
Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country, from your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you and make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Huckabee teaches that the promise God here gave to Abraham applies to the state of Israel that lies on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Since God promised to bless those who blessed Abraham and to curse those who cursed Abraham, if the United States of America wants God’s blessing, it must side with and support the state of Israel. Millions of Christians in America share this belief. They believe that the establishment of Israel as a nation in 1948 was in fulfillment of biblical prophecy. They believe that the Book of Genesis teaches Christians today to support the state of Israel. They are known as Christian Zionists. But their teaching is not Christian.
The text they cite for their doctrine refutes it. Listen once more to the final words of God’s promise to Abraham: “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” What does it mean: “in you?” In Genesis 22:18 God repeated the promise by saying, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” St. Paul explains what this means in Galatians 3:16, “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ.” In you. In your seed. In Christ. All the nations will be blessed in Christ. God will bless those nations that bless Christ and his church. He will curse those nations that curse Christ and his church. The psalmist writes:
Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. (Psalm 2:10-12)
God has no covenant with those who deny Christ. The Old Testament and the New Testament are both centered in Christ. The Jews who were arguing with Jesus in today’s Gospel Lesson claimed Abraham as their father. They appealed to Abraham to prove that Jesus was under the influence of a demon when he said, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” After all, Abraham was dead. Was Jesus claiming to be greater than Abraham, the father of the faithful? Greater than Abraham, the father of many nations? Greater than Abraham, in whom God promised to bless all the families of the earth? In a word: yes.
All the promises God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; all the promises God gave to Moses; all the promises God gave to his people that he called out of Egypt and led into the Promised Land he fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection, was not just an afterthought or parenthesis in God’s plan for this world. Jesus is at the very center of divine revelation from Genesis through Revelation.
Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see his day, saw it, and was glad. Abraham saw Jesus’s day on Mt. Moriah where he went to sacrifice his son Isaac, and the Angel of the Lord stopped him from doing so. The angel of the Lord was none other than the preincarnate Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity two thousand years before he was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. He, not Isaac, would be the sacrifice. What God did not require Abraham to do he did. He said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” But when Abraham took the knife in his hand to sacrifice his son, God stopped him. He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” Abraham had told Isaac that God would provide a lamb. There wasn’t a lamb there on Mt. Moriah for Abraham to offer, but there was a ram caught by its horns in a bush. Abraham offered up the ram instead of Isaac.
God would provide the Lamb. In the fulness of time God sent his Son, his only Son, whom he loved. He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is what Abraham saw on Mt. Moriah. He saw Jesus. By exercising his faith by such a painful trial, God showed Abraham his Savior. God’s only begotten Son whom he loved from eternity would be sacrificed to take away the sin of the world. Abraham saw clearly that what God did not require him to do, God would do. He would give his Son, his only Son, whom he loved and sacrifice him. This is what Abraham believed. Abraham was a Christian. He was a Christian two thousand years before the name Christian was first used. He, along with Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David and other Old Testament believers believed in the same Jesus in whom we trust.
Jesus preached the truth. He preached that he was the only begotten Son of the Father. He was God. He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” I AM is the name that God gave himself when he spoke to Moses from the burning bush. Jesus was a man not yet fifty years old. He promised, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” Who is this young man that he can give eternal life to those who embrace his word? That young man, not yet fifty years old, was God in the flesh. He was I AM. “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.’”
Before God told Moses that his name was, I AM, he said to him, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” I AM is Abraham’s God. Jesus is I AM. Jesus is Abraham’s God. Only those who confess Abraham’s God as their God are heirs of the blessings God promised to Abraham. St. Paul writes in Galatians 3:26-29,
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
The present-day state of Israel is not heir to the promises God gave to Abraham. The Christian church is. The true Israel is not the state of Israel. The true Israel is the Holy Christian Church.
Jesus is God. He is the second person of the Holy Trinity. God has no covenant with those who deny him. The Jewish state known today as Israel has no more of a covenant with God than does Sweden, Nigeria, or Japan. Jesus assumed the nature of all human beings, gave up his life for them all, and redeemed them all. The chosen people of God are not one race or ethnic group. They are those redeemed by Christ’s blood and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. They are called, as we read in Revelation chapter 5, “out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” No race, no nation, no people, no tongue has any more claim to God’s blessing than any other, for the chosen of God are Christians of every nation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
The Jews who opposed Jesus laid claim to their bloodline. They were descendants of Abraham. They thought that entitled them to God’s blessing. But race, bloodlines, ethnicity, and such provide no spiritual benefit. If your father was a big deal in the church this does not benefit you. If your parents or wife or children are faithful Christians, this does not benefit you. Those who can trace their bloodline back to Abraham’s grandson, Israel, and tell you which of Israel’s sons they come from (if, indeed, anyone today can do so), have no more claim on God and God’s promises than those who haven’t a drop of semitic blood in them. Jesus said, “Whoever is of God hears God’s words. The reason you do not hear them is because you are not of God.”
Christian Zionism is part of an elaborate system of interpreting the Bible that teaches a fantastic end times scenario featuring such things as the rapture of all Christians out of this world, followed by a great tribulation, followed by a thousand-year reign of Christ on earth with Jerusalem as the capital city, followed by the battle of Armageddon, followed by Judgment Day. This system of interpretation was invented about 200 years ago. Millions of Christians in America buy into it. But it is false. And it’s a distraction. The Bible is clear. Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead as we confess in the creeds. No one knows when. What’s going on in the Middle East has nothing to do with it. Jesus is coming to take his church home.
The Bible doesn’t address the current political situation in the Middle East. God doesn’t tell us what America’s foreign policy should be. America, Iran, Israel, and every nation in this world will be long gone while Christ’s eternal kingdom will remain. His kingdom is not of this world. It’s not about politics. It’s about faith. “Amen, amen, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” Those words of Jesus transcend politics. Nations die. You will die. You will stop breathing. Your heart will stop beating. Your brain won’t function anymore. You’ll be dead.
In dying, your Lord Jesus will keep you alive. Jesus said so. “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” Jesus has already faced death for us. In his death he destroyed death. His resurrection is the first fruits of our own. We hold onto Christ’s word because it gives us life. It guarantees to us the eternal life Jesus promises. It gives us courage when we face our failures and sins, our sicknesses and losses, and everything that troubles us. None of these things can separate us from the love of God. We have Christ’s word for it. Jesus is our God. Holding onto Christ’s word we hold on to Christ who is the resurrection and the life. He gives us eternal life. No one can take it away from us.
When we perfect joy shall enter
’Tis in him our bliss will rise
He’s the essence, soul, and center
Of the glory in the skies
In redemption’s wonderous story
Planned before our parents’ fall
From the cross unto the glory
Jesus Christ is all in all. Amen