Ego Eimi

“He came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid.’ And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded.” – Mark 6:48-51

One of the neat things about reading consecutively through the Old and New Testaments simultaneously is that you can draw interesting parallels. In this passage, the grammar of the Greek emphasizes Jesus’ intent to pass by his disciples. A remarkable idea, surely. Did he think to casually wave hello as he strode by? The word “terrified” here is the same one used to describe Jesus’ agitation in the Garden of Gethsemane—the disciples were deeply troubled and afraid. The words Jesus utters to them, through the dead-of-night dark, through their fear, are amazing: “ego eimi.” I Am.

When Moses asked for God’s name at the burning bush, God replied, “I Am Who I Am,” which was shorted to a verbal noun of four letters, YHWH, probably pronounced Yahweh, and translated in English “Lord.” This became the Jew’s primary term for God, used 6,700 times, compared with the 2,500 times the more generic semitic term for divinity, Elohim (translated “God”), is used. 

Jesus, passing by, utters the Greek translation of YHWH, ego eimi. Where have we seen this before? At the end of Exodus 33: “Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.’ And he said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.”… and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.”

Moses longed to see God, but could not even glimpse his face. So many years later, God again chooses to reveal himself, in the person of Jesus, the I-Am passing by in glory. I wonder if the disciples recalled Job 9:8, describing God “who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea,” or Psalm 77:19, “your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.” I wonder if they recalled Moses, the shepherd leading his people through the Red Sea, as they saw Jesus, walking through this one. The same I-Am, creator-God, shepherd-God in Exodus, Job, Psalm, is here, in Mark. No wonder they were afraid and utterly astounded.

Framing the ego eimi are words of personal compassion. Take heart, tharseo, surely one of the most encouraging words in the Greek language, translated elsewhere “be of good courage; be of good cheer.” Don’t be afraid. The previously-unattainable Yahweh is present in a deeply personal way. And then Mark, whose paucity of words and focus on action serves us well here, describes two simple events: Jesus gets in the boat with them. The winds cease. That’s all we really need to know, isn’t it? The I-Am is here, and he gets into the boat with us. No longer must we struggle with the oars against the headlong winds.

Today I felt a bit jittery: I had just written up our November calendar. In addition to continuing family routines, we’re opening our home this month to the neighborhood, medical students, non-believing friends, communities within the church, kids’ school friends, work colleagues. Most of them for the first time, all of them unpredictable. I could feel myself starting to strain against the oars, and realized, no, what I need is to realize Jesus is in the boat with me. Jesus is showing me that the indefinable YHWH, the ego eimi, can be defined as God actively present with me. As Theodorus C. Vriezen writes, “ ‘I am who I am’ means, ‘I am there, wherever it may be… I am really there!” Take heart, I-Am, don’t be afraid.