"Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death." John 8:51
A word before we begin to clear up any questions: when Jesus says 'My word' he means his teachings, so if we keep his teachings we will never see death.
What??
If we keep his teachings we will never see death? But we all die.
Exactly!!
Why am I so excited about that? Well, excitement may not be the best word, but I do think that it is a rather important thing to remember. Because whether people follow Jesus for a moment or a lifetime we are missing the mark somewhere because we all die. The criminal on his deathbed dies. The soldier in his foxhole dies. The senior who gave their heart to Jesus at 5 dies. The church secretary dies. The pastor dies. The pope dies. Do you begin to see a pattern?
Whenever I write a sermon I usually end it with a 'so what?' point, sometimes I verbally call it that, sometimes I do not, but whether or not I expressly mention it it's there. If everything I said beforehand is true, so what?
So what? So what if we all die? Why is that important? Why should we focus on that? Well, because as the title says, we are all the same. And, if we are all the same, there is no one who is holier, no one who is perfect, no church that gives out automatic tickets to heaven bypassing death. If we're all the same there is no reason for a forgiven person to hold there forgiven-ness over another person. If we're all the same then your life is no more important than my life, and my life is no more important than anyone else's. At the same time your life is no less important than mine and my life is no less important than anyone else's.
There is freedom in that, freedom from having to be better, freedom from having it all together, freedom from being excluded, because in Jesus life and death and life we are all included, because we are all the same.
+ Have you ever acted 'holier than thou'?
+ Have you ever been excluded from the holy club?
+ How does equality with all others make you feel?
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