Jesus said to the Jews:
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death."
The word of Jesus was not like that of others. Even from a distance people could recognize that, "No one ever spoke like this man!" (see John 7:46). His word had power to bestow eternal life on those who believed in him. This power would save souls from the death of sin become the seed of bodily resurrection on the last day. As Jesus said, his words were "spirit and life" (see John 6:63). Peter recognized, even when he didn't understand, even when what Jesus was saying was almost incomprehensible, that he alone had "the words of eternal life" (see John 6:68).
Keeping Jesus' word could not be separating from keeping his commandments. It was a word was powerful, and was meant to have power in the lives of believers. But ignoring the necessity of obedience blunted the potential of that power. Trying to hold his word without obeying his commands was like treating his word as fiction, with no true relation to reality. Yet trying to obey without love was also fraught with potential failure. It was those who loved Jesus that kept his words (see John 14:23). Therefore it was those who kept his commandments that Jesus loved (see John 14:21). It was not that they earned his love by obedience. Rather, in responding to the love he first showed them, they opened themselves up to the still greater love he desired to show. Those who did so would be loved by not only Jesus but the Father too. This response of love from Jesus included the fact that he would manifest himself to those who loved him. This limit only to those who responded wasn't because he was being stingy. Only love could receive the message of love. Those who loved him would also experience that, "my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him". They would dwell where they were welcomed, but would not force entry into lives barricaded and sealed against their coming.
Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say,
'Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.'
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?
Or the prophets, who died?
Who do you make yourself out to be?"
It was certainly true that Jesus was claiming something greater about himself than could be said about any of the prophets. He was not doing this to glorify himself. He had all the glory he could ever want from his Father. He said it to speak and make known the truth. He said it because to say anything else would make him a liar like so many of his opponents, who were complicit in systems in the world that were hostile to the truth. In fact, the only way to be fully in the truth was not merely to be objective or to pursue science. It was to keep and remain in the words of Jesus. Science only presented a narrow range of empirical truth. Philosophy was broader, but still limited. Only the revelation of the Son of God himself spoke of the deepest levels of reality. Some truth was not accessible by natural reason, but only by revelation. And it turned out to be precisely that which was the most important. The Judeans who opposed Jesus seemed bound by their own version of the empirical. According to their reasoning, other prophets died, even great ones, therefore Jesus and his followers too would one day die. They believed that what they saw and heard was as limited as anything else in time and space. And they would have been right, had not the one who was himself above all creation became a part of that creation. Only because the eternal manifested in time could Jesus promise eternity to those who kept his word.
"You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM."
They gradually came to understand just what Jesus was claiming. And in understanding it they took offense at him. God, they thought, was one thing, and man another, never the twain shall meet. The voice of heaven could not speak so directly from the mouth of one man from Galilee. They believed that Jesus' life began at his birth. But as the Word of the Father he had no beginning. We can almost understand their ingrained reluctance to accept such a revelation. Or we could, had he not demonstrated the truth of his words, by his goodness and power and the truth with which he spoke.
God also said to Abraham:
"On your part, you and your descendants after you
must keep my covenant throughout the ages."
Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Jesus because through Jesus the promise to Abraham would be fulfilled. Jesus was the true king who stemmed from him. His Church was the nation, the new transnational Israel of God. The promised land was nothing less than heaven itself.
For us, the degree to which we are complicit in the system of lies on which this world runs is the degree to which we will be tempted to take offense at Jesus and reject him. Let us allow his word to purify our minds and hearts. Let us learn to respond to the love he first showed us by loving him in return so that he may lead us to the promised land of eternity.
Songs In His Presence - Psalm 19: Your Words, Lord Are Spirit And Life
Songs In His Presence - Psalm 19: Lord, You Have The Words
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