5th Sunday in Lent, Year A

The epiphany is that we are to see ourselves in Lazarus and see the miracle of his restoration of physical life as the beginning of our entry into eternal life that begins the moment we accept Jesus' offer of relationship with us.

"Lazarus Is Us," Reflections on John 11:1-45, Alyce McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, Patheos, 2011.

Vincent van Gogh 1853 – 1890
The Raising of Lazarus
oil on canvas (50 × 65 cm) — 1890
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
This work is linked to John 11:43

Prayer
O my all-merciful God and Lord,
Jesus Christ, full of pity:
Through Your great love You came down
and became incarnate in order to save everyone.
O Savior, I ask You to save me by Your grace!
If You save anyone because of their works,
that would not be grace but only reward of duty,
but You are compassionate and full of mercy!
You said, O my Christ,
"Whoever believes in Me shall live and never die."
If then, faith in You saves the lost, then save me,
O my God and Creator, for I believe.
Let faith and not my unworthy works be counted to me, O my God,
for You will find no works which could account me righteous.
O Lord, from now on let me love You as intensely as I have loved sin,
and work for You as hard as I once worked for the evil one.
I promise that I will work to do Your will,
my Lord and God, Jesus Christ, all the days of my life and forever more.

Prayer of St. John Chrysostom
Click here for more Lenten collects and prayers.


Some thoughts On Lazarus

Oremus Online NRSV Text

"The point of the saying, and ultimately of the narrative as a whole, is to make and celebrate the claim that people who believe in Jesus find life. It is eternal life, which includes timelessness or eternity in the temporal sense, but the focus is quality not quantity. It is sharing the life of God here and now and forever."  writes William Loader.

John's Gospel is a wonderful proclamation of the power, divinity, and transformation that is available to every person through Jesus Christ. The author has written, among the four Gospels, a compelling witness to Jesus as Lord and Savior, as the giver of light, breath, and life from the very creation of the earth.
The story of the raising of Lazarus has never ceased to inspire and enliven both my imagination and my heart for the work of the Gospel.  Our Gospel this week is the highest of revelationary narratives in the Gospel in both form and in content. 

Jesus' raising of Lazarus is a reason why so many follow him and is clear in 12:17-18.  He is, as we know and has been experiencing throughout the Lenten readings, the giver of life. (see 5:25-29), and precipitating his death (see 11:53). If we were reading along, we would see that this is the last of a second set of miracle stories in John's Gospel that follow and highlight Jesus' teaching and conversation with his followers.

The passage begins with Jesus away and teaching, he is not present for his friend or his friends family.  They come to get him and tell him that Lazarus has died.  The words used to describe Jesus reaction to this are words that tell us he was affected greatly by the news. Again Jesus speaks of the work that must be done while he is with them, and that the work must be done in the light.  Certainly, these are like the other sayings that we have seen apocalyptic forecasts.  Nevertheless, the very real human loss and desire for life are ever present as Jesus leaves to go to where Lazarus is buried.

He is of course returning to a place where he has shown power before and a place of danger. You might remember that he was almost stoned though he passed through them.  10:31, 39.

Jesus states that Lazarus has fallen asleep.  This is a common reference to death in the time of Jesus and after.  Chris Haslaam has done some very good research and provides links for other parts of the New Testament that say the same thing:  "A common New Testament description of death: see Matthew 9:24; Mark 5:39; Acts 7:60; 1 Corinthians 15:6; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 5:10. (In several of these verses, the NRSV has died; however, the Greek can also be translated fell asleep.) [NOAB]"

Jesus' words of peace and comfort are kind and simple....things will be better...they will be all right.  Yet we must also realize that the word used here is one that means "to be saved."  Sosthesetai is translated into "be saved." It is the word for salvation.  Our witness to the raising of Lazarus is not simply a witness then to a healing story, or an act of kindness, or a hopeful act, but a transformational act of restoration of health - of true salvation.  It is a miracle, which like the other miracles in John's Gospel, clearly represent the work of glorifying God through the ministry of Jesus.

We are told that Lazarus had been in the grave for three days. There is a lot written around the idea of the Jewish burial services and the timeliness of such activities once the person has died.  But I do not wish to get into this though it is interesting. I believe that the real meat of the text is in the conversation about salvation and resurrection.

As we continue the discourse on the resurrection we note that the Pharisees believed, along with other popular movements of the day, that all the Jews would be raised.  Gentiles too if their integrity was judged by God to be suitable.  I like how Chris Haslaam has written about these next two verses.

Verse 25: Jesus modifies Pharisaic doctrine. His words are not only about resurrection but also about the fate of those faithful to him. Jesus is not only the agent of final resurrection but also gives life now: see also Romans 6:4-5; Colossians 2:12; 3:1. Mere physical death can have no hold over the believer. [NOAB]
Verse 26: The believer has passed from the death of sin into life: see also Revelation 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8. [BlkJn]

Jesus then gives life now and in the age to come.  Immediately Martha offers the same statement as the blind man in last week's lesson.  Her words, while a question refers to previous affirmations in the Gospel. She is convinced...convinced that the proclamation of Andrew on the Galilean shore was true 1:41.  She is convinced that Nathanael's proclamation is true. 1:49.  She is convinced that the good news revealed in the feeding of the 5 thousand is true. 6:14.

Jesus approaches the tomb and calls Lazarus forth. It is not a resurrection story. But we cannot miss the connections as Jesus calls forth the dead from the tomb, as he will most certainly do in the Easter miracle bringing all of the saints into the light. 

I also am struck by the reality that Lazarus must be unbound and that many participate with Jesus in this work of freeing him from death into life, from darkness into light.

The Gospel tells us that this miracle of reviving Lazarus is for the glory of God. It also brings many more into the Jesus movement. We cannot see the disturbing events that lay ahead of Jesus without seeing the impact of this great miracle on the movement itself. For surely, as the Gospel testifies, the leaders of the day were worried and concerned.

This is a great miracle story.  It is one that is rich with intertextual meaning and connections. It highlights Jesus' as the one who gives life and breath.  As Jesus says in the beginning of the text day is becoming night, and yet as we read, we see that it will be Jesus who brings us out of the shadow of the darkness of the tomb into the light of day. 

The witness of this passage is an evangelical one pointing us to the truth of the person of Jesus Christ so that we might believe and then raise the dead ourselves!

We are here hovering at the edge of Lent and fully preparing for Holy Week.  The blogger and pastor Meda Stamper reminds us...just as Jesus has met us at our tombs so we must follow him now to his own.