Focusing Away from Death: John 8:31-59
Published March 18, 2025 in Written Journal Entries
Focus Passage: John 8:31-59 (NIV)
Around the middle of Jesus’ three and a half year ministry, the gospel of John tells us that He went to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. During this festival, Jesus gets into a discussion with some Jews in the temple and John recorded their interesting conversation.
As Jesus debates with these Jewish leaders, we come to a claim Jesus makes that is both amazing and profound. John tells us Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” (v. 51)
On the surface, this statement is amazing and it is a profound promise, but it also makes me wonder, just like the Jews in the temple, what about those who lived before Jesus was alive? Those in the group surrounding Jesus in the temple respond by saying, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets.” (v. 52-53a)
In this response, we have a subtle shift of wording that stood out to me as I read it. On one hand, Jesus tells those present that the people who obey His word will never “see death”. When the group of Jews responds, they respond using the phrase “taste death”.
At first, I wondered if they changed the word that was translated as death since they also changed the word from “see” to “taste”, but a quick look at my Bible concordance, let me know that both words for death are the same. For those unfamiliar with the term Bible concordance, it is a reference book for looking up different places in the Bible where the same words are used. Bible concordances are great tools when trying to let the Bible explain itself.
While in the concordance, I did find that Jesus does use the phrase “taste death” at other times in His ministry, one of which was when He told the disciples that not all of them would “taste death” before He returned. (Matthew 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27)
However, while in the concordance, I also came across another phrase that speaks into this discussion – and it actually answers the Jews counter statements to Jesus. Just a few chapters later in John 11, we find the sickness, death, and resurrection of Jesus’ good friend Lazarus. Setting the stage for what happens, Jesus tells the group of disciples in this event, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” (John 11:4)
However, Lazarus did die, even if it was only for a few days initially. This makes me think that, similar to how Jesus often interacted with the Jews, He would talk on a different spiritual level than what the Jews were used to debating. Seeing death is clearly different from tasting death, and I wonder if Jesus spoke this way as an attempt to try to redirect the focus of these prominent Jews.
While death in these verses could mean literal death, this original word in this context could also mean eternal death as well. But focusing on death is not what Jesus wanted to do in this portion of this discussion.
Jesus wants to draw our attention to the real truth that when we are obeying God, we never “see death” as the end of our existence. Instead, we know that even if we might die in this life and age, we have a future life waiting for us in God’s kingdom.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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