In John’s Gospel we are nearing the end of Jesus’ ministry, and he is speaking ever more clearly about who he is and his mission. Jesus’ communion with God gives him the confidence of the son of God, the God of life. His declarations in today’s Gospel would have been shocking to first century Israelite. First “you will never see death” equates living his words with eternal life. Secondly, by identifying himself with the name reserved for God, “I am”, he is proclaiming that he comes from and is part of God. As a result, the crowd wanted to stone him to death. Jesus proclaims eternal life and the people’s response is death.
Jesus is the center of Christian life. As he says today, living united to his Word produces life. Jesus invites us into life within the Holy Trinity through living out actively his words. That is what baptism does to us. Our encounter with Jesus, his Word, and our baptism is a transformational event. We are incorporated into the life of God. We become eternal. We are grafted into the love of God shown in the resurrection. Yet most people do not live like resurrected, eternal sons and daughters of God.
Most of us live out our lives as limited, temporary beings. That is our basic vision on life. Life becomes centered on death and limits. As the psalm says, we project ourselves out for 50 to 80 years of life. Overall we feel limited and sad. This leads us to want to take advantage of everything and everybody as quickly as possible. That is the origin of the “just do it” mentality that is so popular in our culture.
We are not abandoned children who are limited by sickness and disease in our bodies. Today Jesus calls us to a new culture, a new form of life. As we move closer to Holy Week, take time to think how you would act if you were an eternal being. What would you do with your life if you truly believed that your baptism has transformed you and placed you in the middle of the resurrection?
I say to you,
whoever keeps my word
will never see death.
Image: CANVA CJ 22 March2026 AI generated.