Astonishment
Astonishment
Up to this point, the I AM statements we have considered have all carried some dignity. There is nothing dishonorable about bread or light, shepherds or sheepfolds, resurrection or life, truth or vines; but worms are quite another matter. Apart from professional helminthologists, very few people find much in worms to admire. Worms are dirt dwellers that are despised and often stepped on. When you consider that Jesus is the one speaking, the statement is astonishing.
When Job described himself in his suffering, he said that corruption was his father and the worm his mother or sister (Job 17:14), and that his body was “clothed with worms” (7:5). Job’s friend Bildad said humans are maggots and worms (25:6). The prophet Isaiah described the judgment of the wicked like this: “The worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched” (Isa. 66:24). Because he was a proud and bloodthirsty ruler, Herod Agrippa I was “eaten by worms and died,” an ignominious end for a king (Acts 12:21–24).
Originally it was David who made the statement “I am a worm,” but David was a prophet and wrote about Christ (see Acts 2:30). Psalm 22 is about Jesus, the Son of God, and He is calling Himself a worm! Hebrews 7:26 describes Him as “holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens,” yet He calls Himself a worm. Other people have expressed self-reproach, but they weren’t as holy or as exalted as Jesus. Job said to the Lord, “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth.… Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 40:4; 42:6). Paul called himself the worst of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), “the least of the apostles” (1 Cor. 15:9), and “less than the least of all the Lord’s people” (Eph. 3:8). But the Son of God called Himself a worm!
The statement becomes even more astounding when we remember that He was speaking to His heavenly Father, whose will He had obeyed during all His years of ministry on earth. It was the Father who said of Him, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). But even more, when we consider when He spoke these words, they become incredible. It was while He was doing His greatest work and dying on the cross for the sins of the world! While committing some selfish, abominable sin, anybody could say, “I am a worm,” but certainly not while doing the greatest work ever done on earth and experiencing the greatest suffering.