“Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This [Jesus] spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, He said to [Peter], “Follow me.”

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“… [S]ignifying by what death he would glorify God” (John 21:19, emphasis mine). These are the words of St. John, commenting on the manner of death that St. Peter would endure for the glory of Christ—martyrdom. Often, brethren, we speak of living to the glory of God. The premise is, of course, perfectly biblical.

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col 3:17, italics mine).

“I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1, italics mine).

We can live to the glory of God! But what of our dying? Can we also die to the glory of God? No, it is not as though our God revels in death. We do not serve a god of death and war (think Kali from the Hindu pantheon, or Hel from the Norse pantheon). We serve a God who has appointed death to all men (cf. Heb 9:27; Job 14:5), but as an act of great mercy—that a man should not continue in his sin.

“The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no on understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death” (Isa 57:1-2).

“Those who walk uprightly enter into peace.” This is the true meaning of the Psalter verse, “Precious in the site of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Ps 116:15): that through death, a man might enter into the peace of God; that even through death, life has come into all the world.

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned… . Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. … [W]here sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also, grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 5:12, 18, 20b-21).

We can live for God, and we can die for God. The Apostle Paul’s life especially reflects this truth, and he writes in Philippians, “Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (1:20-21), and elsewhere in Romans,

“For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (14:8).

It is self-evident when someone is living for the Lord, is it not? Their lives exemplify the fruits of the Spirit. Men of true faith, living to the glory of God, are peaceable, charitable, selfless, patient, and kind. What does it look like when a man is dying for God? In the case of the martyrs, this is also evident. Taken from the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, the dying words of the saint:

“Eighty and six years have I been [the Lord’s] servant, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme his name?”

Then, the executioners set him on fire and stab him with a dagger. That is clearly dying for God. St. Paul goes to Rome and is beheaded—clearly, dying for God. St. Peter is crucified upside down in Nero’s Circus on Vatican Hill—clearly, dying for God.

What about us, brethren? Are we dying for God? What if I said that—whether we become martyrs or not—our living for God is simultaneously our dying for God? The Apostle writes in Romans,

“If you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (8:13).

He bolsters his point later in Galatians,

“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (2:20, emphasis mine).

Death to self for the glory of God is life in Christ Jesus. We die to ourselves when we “crucify the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). We die to ourselves when we choose love over hate, patience of impatience, abstinence over indulgence, charity over miserliness, humility over pride. No man can avoid death. “It has been appointed unto men once to die” (Heb 9:27). We can either die well or we can die poorly. We can accept death as the threshold to eternal life. Or we can rage against death. We can, bitterly and frustrated and dissatisfied, in the words of Job’s wife, “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). Or we can die in the waters of Holy Baptism and unites ourselves to Christ. The health of our souls—and the surety of our faith—is revealed as death looms over us. The true believer does not fear death.

There is an inscription over the gateway of St. Paul’s Monastery on Mount Athos:

“Αν πεθάνεις πριν πεθάνεις, δεν θα πεθάνεις ÏŒταν πεθάνεις”

“If you die before you die, you will not die when you die.”

Death is not optional, brethren. We cannot return to the immature hopes of childhood to placate our anxiety: “Oh, I hope one day someone finds a cure for death! Oh, I hope Jesus comes back before I have to grow old, suffer, and die.” “No one knows the day or hour…,” our Lord says in St. Matthew’s Gospel (24:36). Christ may return while we yet live; he might not. We may hope in the former. We must prepare for the latter. We must daily recall the words of the Litany of Supplication, “For a Christian end to our lives, … for a good account before the fearful judgment seat of Christ.” Let us not fear death, brethren! But let us enter into it—even today—in peace, in the hope of the resurrection of our Lord.

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord, Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!