[Note: This sermon expounds Matthew 16:24–28. Delivered 13 July 1980, Montreal.]
We return to Matthew chapter 16, and today we reach verse 28: "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." This verse has been described by commentators as the crux interpretum — the great interpretive crux of the passage, or even of the Gospels as a whole. I find this label surprising. I do not think the verse is nearly as difficult as has been supposed. The difficulty arises not from the text itself but from the assumptions that interpreters bring to it.
Before we come to the verse, notice something characteristic of our Lord Jesus throughout his teaching. He was not afraid to be misunderstood. He consistently made statements that would separate those who were genuinely seeking from those who were merely curious. When he said "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you," his disciples walked away — and he did not call them back or offer a clarification. When he said "destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," those words were used against him at his trial, and even then he said nothing in his own defence. He made statements that would divide, and he left them deliberately obscure to the uncommitted. As he said in Matthew 13: "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom; to them it has not been given." Understanding comes to those who are yielded, open, and dependent on God's revelation — not to those who approach the text with their own conclusions already in hand.
The liberal interpretation of Matthew 16:28, associated especially with Albert Schweitzer, is that Jesus genuinely expected the kingdom to arrive within the lifetime of his listeners — and that he was mistaken. This reading has been enormously influential in the twentieth century, and it has destroyed the faith of many who encountered it in universities. The argument goes: Jesus said "some standing here will not taste death" — clearly a time reference to the near future — and yet the kingdom did not come. Therefore Jesus was wrong, and the whole framework of his eschatology collapses. This is a plausible reading if you bring certain assumptions to the text. But it requires ignoring a crucial question: what does "see the kingdom" actually mean?
Turn to John 3:3, where the Lord Jesus says to Nicodemus: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The word "see" here is of the utmost importance. Unless a person is born again, they cannot see the kingdom. The word in Greek carries the meaning of experiencing, entering into, apprehending from within. This is not merely intellectual observation — it is experiential knowledge. And it is future tense in John 3:3 — "cannot see the kingdom of God" — which in context means: if you are not regenerate, the kingdom will remain permanently inaccessible to you in experience.
This has a direct bearing on Matthew 16:28. If only the regenerate can see the kingdom, then Matthew 16:28 is addressed primarily to disciples — to those who are born again or who will be born again. Non-regenerate persons cannot see the kingdom of God regardless of when they live or what they observe. They might witness the outward signs of the kingdom's arrival, but they would not experience it. The word "see" in Matthew 16:28, as in John 3:3, means to experience from within — and that experience is the exclusive domain of those who have been born of God.
Now consider John 8:51, where Jesus says: "Truly, truly, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he will never see death." The Jewish leaders immediately pick up the language: "Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?" They quote back: "Abraham died, and you say, if any one keeps my word, he will never taste death." Notice carefully: Jesus said "see death" and the Jews quote "taste death" — the two expressions are synonyms. Both mean to experience death. The Jews understood this perfectly. They knew that "seeing" and "tasting" were equivalent ways of saying "experiencing." What you see, you experience; what you taste, you experience. It is the same thing in Hebraic idiom.
So the expression "will not taste death" in Matthew 16:28 means: will not experience death. And the promise is made to those among the disciples who have or will have eternal life through faith. It is not a promise that physical death will not come — physical death came to every one of the disciples, including the apostle John. It is a promise that those who have eternal life will not experience death as death — for them, dying is falling asleep in Christ, and they will wake to see, to experience fully, the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Let us turn to John chapter 3 verse 3 to look more carefully at the full pattern of these promises.
# "Some Standing Here Will Not Taste Death" — Matthew 16:24–28 (Part B) — The Greek Word "Until"; Christ Tasted Death for Us; the Eternal Promise
[Note: This is Part B of the sermon on Matthew 16:24–28, continuing directly from Part A. Delivered 13 July 1980, Montreal.]
In John 3:3 the Lord says: "Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." As we noted, "see" means to experience. In John 3:36 he says: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life." Again, "see life" means to experience life. John 5:24: "He who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." John 6:47–50: "He who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die." John 6:58: "He who eats this bread will live forever." John 8:51: "If any one keeps my word, he will never see death."
The pattern across all these statements is consistent: those who believe, obey, eat, keep his word — have eternal life, will not see death, will not taste death, will see the kingdom. The expressions "see life," "taste death," "see the kingdom," and "have eternal life" are four different ways of saying the same thing. They describe the experiential reality of those who are born of God: they have crossed from death to life; dying is for them not death but sleep; and they will experience fully the coming of the Son of Man in his kingdom.
Now consider how Paul speaks of death in 1 Corinthians 15. He refers repeatedly to believers who have "fallen asleep" — the word for death among those who have eternal life. "He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep" (verse 6). "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep" (verse 20). "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (verse 51). And in 1 Thessalonians 4:14: "Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep." For the believer, death is sleep. The sting has been removed.
This brings us to Hebrews 2:9, which is the key to the entire expression in Matthew 16:28. The writer says that Jesus was made lower than the angels "so that by the grace of God he might taste death for every one." The exact same expression — taste death — appears here, but now with reference to Christ himself. Christ tasted death for every man. He experienced death on our behalf so that we would not have to experience it. This is the theological foundation of Matthew 16:28. Those standing there who would not taste death are those who will not taste death because Christ tasted it for them. The promise is not that they will live on indefinitely in the body — it is that death, for them, has been emptied of its sting.
Now we must address the word "until" in Matthew 16:28: "there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." In Greek, the word is heos an. A common error in interpretation is to assume that "until" implies a reversal — that is, that after they see the kingdom, they will then taste death. This error has caused many commentators to look for a near-future event (the transfiguration, Pentecost, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD) which the disciples could witness before dying, and then to conclude that Matthew 16:28 is simply about that event. But the word "until" in Greek does not necessarily imply reversal.
Consider Psalm 110:1: "The LORD says to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool." Does this mean that after the enemies are made the footstool, Christ will stop sitting at the right hand? Obviously not. Christ will continue to reign at the right hand of the Father both before and after the defeat of his enemies. The word "till" does not reverse the condition — it sets a milestone but does not describe what happens after. Similarly, 1 Corinthians 4:5: "Do not pronounce judgment before the Lord comes" — this does not mean you will be permitted to judge after he comes; it simply sets a boundary. Marshall's Greek commentary makes the mistake of reading "until" adversatively here; H.A.W. Meyer correctly rejects this but without fully explaining the grammar. The grammar is clear: "until" establishes a terminus or milestone, not a reversal.
The transfiguration was a foretaste, Pentecost was a foretaste, the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD was a foretaste — each prefiguring the final coming of the Son of Man in his kingdom. But the full promise of Matthew 16:28 is not exhausted by any of these events. It is addressed to all disciples who have eternal life: they will not experience death, because Christ has tasted death for them, and they will experience the coming of the Son of Man. The world will see the Son of Man coming — but only the regenerate will experience the kingdom. That is the promise: to those who have denied themselves, taken up their cross, and followed him, who have lost their lives for his sake — to them is given the experience of his kingdom, both now in foretaste and fully at his coming.
The road is hard. The cross is real. But for those who walk this way, the promise is extraordinary: they will never taste death. They have already passed from death to life. And they will see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom — experience it, enter into it, be part of it. That is worth any cost. Count the cost, yes — but count also what you receive.