Abraham Saw My Day

In the Temple of Jerusalem, Christ holds a long dispute with men who claim Abraham as their father. At the end of the exchange, he declares: “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” John 8:56 Abraham had lived nearly two thousand years earlier. To say that he saw the day of Christ is to place that day at the centre of all history, reaching into the most distant past.

The day of Christ is his coming among men and the work of salvation he accomplishes in it. It is the moment when God brings about in the flesh what he had promised from the beginning. To say that Abraham saw this day is to say that he knew it in advance in the light of faith, which makes present what is still to come.

The faith that sees from afar

Abraham received from God a promise: a countless offspring, and through it a blessing for all nations: “In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 22:18 This offspring through whom the blessing comes is Christ himself: “The promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring, which is Christ.” Galatians 3:16 In believing the promise, Abraham believed in the one who would fulfil it. His faith already rested on the Christ who was to come.

The patriarchs lived and died in this expectation, seeing from afar what was promised to them: “These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar.” Hebrews 11:13 Abraham's vision belongs to this faith: he greeted the day of Christ from afar.

The son offered on the mountain

Abraham saw this day in one precise event of his life. God asks him to offer Isaac, his only son, the one he loves. Father and son go up the mountain together, and Isaac carries on himself the wood of the sacrifice. To the child who wonders about the missing lamb, Abraham answers: “God will provide himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Genesis 22:8 At the last moment, Abraham's hand is stayed, and a ram is offered in the place of Isaac.

In this Abraham contemplates in advance the sacrifice of the only Son. A father leading his beloved son, a son carrying the wood of his offering, a victim given in exchange so that life may be restored: all this shows beforehand the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, where the Son given up by the Father carries the wood himself and dies to restore life to men. Abraham gives the place a name that speaks his expectation: the Lord will provide.

Before Abraham was, I am

The word about Abraham's joy leads to a higher declaration. When his hearers are astonished that he could have seen Abraham, Christ answers: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” John 8:58 He affirms that he exists before Abraham, and he names himself with the very words God had revealed to Moses: “I am who I am.” Exodus 3:14

Christ thus declares himself eternal and divine. He is the Son who exists for ever with the Father, before coming in the flesh through the Incarnation. His hearers understand that he calls himself God, and they take up stones to stone him.

The day of Christ runs through the whole of Scripture. Before his coming, he was promised, awaited and seen from afar by the just who lived by faith in him. Abraham, the father of believers, carried this hope and rejoiced to see it open. For the one who believes today, the coming of Christ fulfils what God had been preparing since Abraham, and gives its centre to the whole history of salvation.