FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT A

[cappie]

Two of my favourite sayings are, "You're not dead till you're dead," and, "Think outside the box; you'll have eternity to be inside the box." This Sunday's readings focus on graves, the depths and death, but they really are about life. 

For the Fifth Sunday in Lent  St John recounts another sign, or miracle, the raising of Lazarus. It is this story that precipitates the plot against Jesus life and leads to his death and resurrection. It is a sign story revealing that Jesus acts, not on his own, but from above and not at the urging of others. It is another account of life coming from God and no one else.

Jesus is told that his friend Lazarus in Bethany is ill. But Jesus does not go there for two more days and not until after the disciples remind him that Bethany is the place where the people wanted to stone him just a short time ago. Jesus takes the opportunity to tell the disciples that he will go there so that they might believe. He is the prophet in this story, and it is up to him to bring God’s message of life.

As Jesus approaches Bethany, Martha, one of the sisters of Lazarus, meets Jesus and tells him he is too late, that Lazarus is dead. Jesus tells her that her brother Lazarus will live again because he, Jesus, is the resurrection and the life. Those who believe, even if they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Jesus is visibly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. When Jesus asks where Lazarus has been laid, Martha says, “Come and see”. Jesus begins to weep. Is he aware that the same things will happen again only to him in just a short time?

Martha sends for her sister, Mary, the sister who anointed Jesus with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair and asks her to come join them. The other mourners follow her because they think that she is going to the tomb to mourn. The tomb is described as a cave with a large stone in front of it. Jesus asks them to roll way the stone. Then he looks upward and thanks his Father for always hearing him. He calls into the cave and with a loud voice tells Lazarus to come out. Lazarus does come out proving once again that only God gives life.

As a part of our Lenten journey we are given yet another opportunity to walk a path toward restoration with Jesus. But we must walk that path as a community so that there may be a resurrection into new life. We are reminded that only God gives life. These stories give us hope that God will continue to give life even over death.

We must choose to despair or to trust; to give up or to go on; to abandon hope, or to let go in faith. That choice is not made for us, but it is offered to us. And that choice can be terribly hard. More than at any other time, the reality of death—death in whatever form—is a call to trust.

We see what the world sees, and yet we see more.  And we see that the word of Jesus has power. “Come out” the Lord calls. “Come out” into different life, into new life. “Come out” into life unknown and unexplained. “Come out” in trust and in hope.

We are living in a time, that points us towards Pentecost; but first we must experience Easter. We can make choices about how we get to Easter. We can choose not to focus on the things of the world that distract us and drain our life from us. We can choose to resist loving or accepting some more than others because they are different or think differently.  We can choose to nurture a sense that  we are together, a family.
 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, cappie said:

 We can choose to nurture a sense that  we are together, a family.