Jesus has been building toward this all through John's Gospel. Today he says it plainly: before Abraham came to be, I AM.
Present tense. The divine name. The name from the burning bush. Spoken by a man in the temple as a claim about himself. The crowd understands immediately and picks up stones.
This is the moment when every comfortable version of Jesus collapses. He is not merely a teacher worth following. He is not a philosopher you can admire from a distance. He is the I AM - the eternal God, speaking his own name in human vocal cords.
C.S. Lewis's famous trilemma applies here with full force: a man who says what Jesus says is either a lunatic, a liar, or Lord. There is no fourth option called "great moral teacher."
God's covenant with Abraham was everlasting - binding for a thousand generations. Jesus claims to predate that covenant. Abraham rejoiced to see my day. The covenant points to him. Everything points to him.
In your twenties, you're deciding what to build your life on. The I AM is either the foundation or it isn't. There's no version of Christianity where Jesus is just a helpful addition to an otherwise self-sufficient life.
