The Holy Martyr Thaleleus.
Acts 12:25-13:12; John 8:51-59.
Read John 8:51-59
It can be challenging for us to hear Jesus say things like, “if any one keeps my word, he will never see death” (Jn. 8:51). So many of us have had to mourn the loss of our loved ones, and we are painfully aware that they have died. How can it be the case that those who keeps Jesus’ word will “never see death?”
It is impossible for any of us to “die” when our ever-living God dwells within us. Death has been destroyed; Christ has trampled Death by death. We say that those who have died in Christ have “fallen asleep” because we know that their physical death is not the end of their life but rather a passage unto everlasting life. Our physical death is a temporary state as we await the resurrection of our bodies. Just as we go to sleep at night and wake up on a new day, likewise when we “fall asleep” in death, we will “wake up” and bodily rise to new life on the Day of the Lord, on the last day. As the Israelites passed through the Red Sea from slavery into freedom in the Promised Land and the angel of death passed over the blood-marked lintels and side posts of the Israelite houses, so by our physical death we pass over into the heavenly Kingdom promised to us by God as our inheritance, being His adopted sons and daughters. We are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, and in Him we have the boldness to call God our Father. May we not only hear Jesus’ word but “keep” it too by living it, and we will never see death.