You Are Possessed!

“Now we are sure that you are possessed.
Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say,
‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?”

John 8:52-53a

When Jesus taught that if one were to keep His Word, they would not see death. The Jews listening found that absurd to the point that they said Jesus was possessed! They could not wrap their heads around the fact that someone could live forever and never die. But, can we blame them? To someone without faith, it does sound pretty crazy. We learn by experience that people die, no matter how healthy one is, they eventually succumb to death. So in one sense we can see where the Jews were coming from. They were right, Abraham died and the prophets died — they got that part right, but the part they got wrong was that they are not simply dead and gone, they are fully alive in God.

Jesus came so that death will never overcome us. Our earthy lives will come to an end, but the eternal life with which we have been endowed never ends. We live forever in Christ. When our earthly lives are over, we will join the saints in the hallways of heaven, God willing, and on the final day, we will we made perfect in our glorified bodies.

So, to answer the Jew’s question, although rhetorical on their part, Jesus is indeed greater than Abraham! He was with the Father from the very beginning. Jesus is the Son of God. He is not possessed in the way the Jews thought in their doubt and confusion, but He is possessed in that He is One with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Where are we in our journey of faith? Do we believe that if we keep His words, we will never die? Do we embrace the life God has gifted unto us? Are we possessed by His love?