On Passion Sunday, we enter the final two weeks of Lent, which the Church has named “Passiontide,” or “The Season of the Passion.” During these two weeks, the Churchs ancient Lenten course reaches its climax as we contemplate our Lord Jesus Christs death for us on the Cross. As much as it is humanly possible, and with the supernatural help of Gods grace, we are meant to let nothing in this world divert our attention from our Saviors Passion and death as we prepare to celebrate His Resurrection.
As we enter Passiontide, we are brought into a rather remarkable spiritual land by the Scripture readings for this Sunday. Today the importance of seeing Jesus as the Melchizedek Great High Priest making atonement for the whole creation is brought into more personal perspective.
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
The purging of our conscience from dead works is the first step in our entry into the realm of the eternal inheritance. This is the purpose of the mystery of repentance or confession : precisely this cleansing of our conscience from dead works, that we may be able to serve the living God. That the enemy may have nothing in us, as Jesus said of Himself.
After holy Baptism, this is the great mystery given by Christ to His Church to deal with our sickness, and to bring us into that place of purity once again which we entered at our baptism. It is why we pray that the Lord might be in the heart and upon the lips, that the penitent may truly and humbly confess all his or her sins. It is the realization that to the greatest degree, we decide how far we will progress along the path of purification which leads to illumination and holiness; how far our conscience is cleansed from dead works.
And then, we have this fascinating word of our Lord from His discussion today with the Pharisees. If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. An astonishing word, and difficult for us to comprehend. If we look at the Greek, we get some insight, I believe. The first phrase uses the word tereo for keep, the same word used for keeping watch, or guarding something, a prisoner, for example. To keep His word here means to guard it in the heart, to hold it there and keep watch over it, as Mary did.
The next phrase he shall never see death uses the word theoreo for see this is a word with several meanings: to see with the eyes or perceive, to gaze at, or behold, or consider.
More interestingly, it also is used for seeing in the sense of partaking of something experientially. This is how it is used when we speak of theoria as the contemplation of God; the experience of Him in the heart. And this is how it is used here. In other words, Jesus is saying, if a man keep my word in his heart and guard it there, he will never experience death in this way. The Jews in response misquote Jesus: he shall never taste (georgeo) of death. Jesus Himself would taste of death, but He would do so precisely so that we might not, at least in the same way.
While most of us will still undergo the physical reality of the separation of soul and body when the breath of life leaves us, to those who keep the word of Jesus, whose minds are turned towards that word, seeking with all the heart to live it out, death will be merely a transition, or as I sometimes put it changing our address in the Body of Christ. It will happen to us, but we will not experience it as it was before Jesus Resurrection and trampling down of death by death.
Jesus spoke of giving life to us, more abundant life than the life we normally experience, and this is the way to see what He is speaking of here with the Jews.
This is the word which we should observe, keep, guard, especially as we enter this season of reflection upon what His entering and conquering of death means for us.