“Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My Word, he will never see death.” With these words of our Lord, the Jews scoffed at Jesus, believing Him to be a crazy liar. “Now we know You have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet You say, ‘If anyone keeps My Word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? All those great prophets died too? Who do think you are?!” While we certainly understand how wicked and wrong those folks were, are we really any different? You have to admit: What they say rings true in our ears, doesn’t it? We want the words of Jesus to be true, and yet death happens to everyone, not just unbelievers.
Death happens, and it hurts. If only Christ’s words were true! If only we wouldn’t have to experience death. If only we wouldn’t have to taste the bitter taste of death and separation. We may not want to admit it, but we sometimes struggle with the same unbelief that held these wicked Jews captive when death rears its ugly head in our lives.
But did you catch the problem here? Jesus never said that we wouldn’t taste of death. He said we would never see death. There is a difference—an eternal difference. The Jews, doing exactly what Satan did in the Garden so long ago, twist and corrupt the Word of God. Everyone dies. That’s part of the curse after the fall into sin. “From dust you were made, and to dust you shall return.” That’s the consequence of sin, and it’s right out of God’s mouth. As soon as conception takes place, the clock starts ticking. No one lives here forever. Everyone’s body dies. The stats don’t lie One out of every one person dies.
So…does this mean that Jesus is wrong? Well…how are you looking at this—through man’s sinful eyes, or through God’s eyes? Remember: When Lazarus died, Jesus referred to it as simply “sleeping.” The same goes for Jairus’ daughter. “Why all the commotion? She’s not dead. She’s sleeping.” And how did both stories end up? They had most certainly fallen asleep in death, and Your Lord spoke His life-giving Word and awakened them from their deathly slumber. They tasted death, but they didn’t see death. They tasted physical death, the temporary separation of the soul from the body (which all men taste), but they didn’t see/experience eternal death; the death that is total and eternal separation from the Lord of Life. There is a difference—an eternal difference.
Sadly, this is where those biological children of Abraham just didn’t get it. The fruit of faith had fallen so far from the tree! Just consider the events of today’s OT. God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac; the very son that had been promised to him for all those years. From this son that God was going to bring the promised Messiah into the world. But here is God commanding Abraham to put this same son to death! The craziest thing of all? Abraham heard and obeyed. He believed God. He trusted God. But what exactly did he believe? What did he trust?
As we have been studying in our Sunday Bible class, the writer to the Hebrews tells us in 11:17-19 that Abraham fully believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead. We even hear Abraham proclaim this faith when he tells his servants to “wait here, and we [the boy and I] will go and worship and then we will return.”
Abraham wasn’t lying in order to not raise suspicions. He believed that God would take care of it. He had a very specific, focused faith on God’s promise regarding Isaac. God said it…many time over the course of twenty-five years, and Abraham trusted God. If God told him to kill his son, Abraham fully believed that God would raise him from the dead. God’s promise could not and would not die with Isaac on that mountaintop. Abraham believed it…and so did Isaac.
The faithful son of this faithful father trusted his father, and more importantly trusted the Word and promise of God that his father had handed down to him and taught him and raised him to believe. At some point Isaac realized that God did indeed provide the sacrifice, and he was the sacrifice. That is why Isaac didn’t object or put up a fight or try to flee in order to save his life. Isaac didn’t go to that altar kicking and screaming and fighting for his life. Isaac went willingly. He carried the wood up that mountain on his own back and helped his father construct the altar and then allowed his father to bind his hands and feet. He was confident in the faith of his father that even though he would momentarily taste of death, God would resurrect him.
This is why this Old Testament lesson is appointed for this particular Sunday in Lent, just a few short days before Good Friday. Jesus—the promised Son in the flesh—willingly went to the cross to offer Himself as a sacrifice—the all-atoning sacrifice for the sins of all children of Adam. His Father commanded, and Jesus obeyed. “Not My will, but Thy will be done.” This obedient Son carried the wood of His own sacrifice on His own back to that mountaintop. He allowed Himself to be beaten, scourged, and bound to that sacrificial altar of the cross, the nails piercing His flesh and blood as they buried into the wood beneath. It is on this cross—this bloody altar—that the Son of God momentarily experienced/saw true hellish death, for the just and fiery wrath of God was poured out upon Him in full: forsaken by God because of the sin placed on Him. Yet He never lost faith. When that sacrifice was complete; when the wage was paid in full for all time, He victoriously cried out, “It is finished.” He then peacefully and confidently commended His Spirit to His Father, and then fell asleep in death.
But Jesus from the cross also said “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” Those words of promise, spoken to that lowly, undeserving thief, were absolutely true. Though they both tasted death, neither saw death—eternal death—for they both reclined at the heavenly feast in paradise that very afternoon. And three days later, as you well-know, the Lord of Life arose from His Sabbath rest—His deathly slumber—and proved to the world that He is the Lord of Life. Death has no dominion over Him! “All who believe in Me shall never die.”
My fellow baptized believers: This is our comfort, our peace, our reason to rejoice, even as we sorrow and grieve and taste of the sinful death that pervades our bodies and the fallen world in which we now reside. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into His death and resurrection? For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” Death no longer has dominion over us! Though we may taste of death in this fallen and sinful world, we have His baptismal promise that we will never die! God poured out His wrath and death upon Christ so that we will not have to see with our own eyes true death in Hell. Instead as Job proclaims: with these same eyes now perfected and raised we shall see our Redeemer. For Christ’s sake we will see life, not death. We will never truly die but pass from death to life, forever alive in Christ and because of Christ. The resurrection that awaits us will be a resurrection unto eternal life, our bodies awakened from the slumber of physical death and made perfect, reunited with our souls, living body and soul complete, just as our Creator had always intended.
Our Lord knows our weakness of faith right now; our tendency to doubt when things get tough or seem dark. This is why He continually holds out to us His proof and assurance. Look no further than right here at the altar/communion rail. “I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Take and eat. Take and drink. This is My body and My blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sin.” Only the Living One can give us this gift of Life. This isn’t a memorial meal. It’s a feast of Life; a foretaste of the feast to come! Sin is death—eternal death—but where there is forgiveness of sin, there is life—eternal life. Though we may suffer and even taste the bitter taste of death and dying in this world/age, yet we live and we will never die, because our death has already been swallowed up and put to death in the blood of Christ; the very lifeblood He nourishes us with here at His holy altar.
Come what may, you belong to Christ. Come what may, the Lord of Life reigns victorious, and here is where He Himself nourishes you and your faith with the fruits of His victory, which is made your victory by virtue of your baptism into Him; by virtue of your faith in Him.
This is the Truth that has come to set you free. Jesus Christ crucified to pay for your sin and swallow up your death. The event which Abraham Himself has seen and now lives in, rejoicing with all the other saints who are now at rest with Christ. This day of salvation you have seen and do experience in His Word and Sacraments.
Be free in Christ from all doubt and worry, despair and anger. Like your father Abraham, may you ever hold fast to the Word and Promise of your God and Lord. May you see your Lord providing and reigning and ruling in your midst; and may you rejoice, now and into all eternity. In Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.
Pr. Aaron Kangas