Life Before Death
Excerpt from John 5: 24-30
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes [the one] who sent me has eternal life . . .”
Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson
Did you notice? The first dozen times I’m sure I didn’t.
When Jesus speaks of eternal life here (and throughout the Gospel of John) he isn’t only speaking of something that happens after we die. He is speaking of something that happens right now.
“Anyone who hears my word and believes [the one] who sent me has eternal life.” Jesus didn’t say “will have eternal life.” He said, “has eternal life.” Whatever eternal life is, it starts when his word burns in our heart and we take the risk of trusting our lives to the One who sent Jesus, the light of the world.
While I do trust that there is life beyond death, I also think that life before death is a good idea. But sometimes life before death seems like a really big challenge.
We spend all our time and energy getting ready for something someday and miss today. Or we become, for all sorts of reason, some understandable and some not, dead people walking. There’s no life in us. We put our hands over our ears so we won’t hear what God, or anyone else, is saying to us. We refuse to even imagine, much less trust, that there really is a God who is up to something and who is on a quest to find us.
Jesus is telling us that eternal life isn’t just a quantity of life. It is a quality of life. It’s a quality of life that happens, that is ours, when we trust him by following him here and now.
Imagine being alive before death! Now’s the time; today’s the day. Besides, there’s a good chance if we don’t start living the life that is true and lasting on this side of the grave, it’s not super likely to suddenly happen on the other side.
Prayer
There’s death in me, God, but life in you. Raise me from the dead today. Help my ears to hear you, my heart to trust you, my feet to follow you. Amen.
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