Fifth Sunday of Lent
Just this last week, I celebrated the last sacraments with six different families and presided at three funerals. So when at the Theology on Tap session last Thursday the young adults asked me to share the best part of my life as a priest, it did not take me too long to answer. The most meaningful aspect of my ministry is also the hardest – praying with those nearing death and their families. Funerals take their toll on me but funerals are also the most hope-filled experience. In spite of the grief, the lifelessness, and the absence that death causes, thanks be to our faith in Jesus Christ, there is a meaning and blessedness in death that cannot be compared to any other experience.
Passages such as the one that we have in today’s gospel reading assume great significance when we confront death. This passage, once again, can be approached from many perspectives. For example, if we take this along with the stories of the Samaritan woman and the healing of the blind man, then today’s story is about Martha and Mary gradually coming to their faith confession in Christ. Today, I am choosing to focus on the Jesus that Mary and Martha confessed as the messiah. I am going to focus on three verbs that describe Jesus but also what God accomplished in Jesus.
1.Jesus loved. Twice at the beginning of the passage we hear about Jesus’ love. First, the message came to Jesus in the words, “Master, the one you love is ill.” And then we are told, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” Is this detail integral to the story? In last week’s gospel the reason that Jesus gave for healing the blind man was, “so that the works of God might be made visible through him.” Was it important for John to let us know that Jesus loved this family? Perhaps other scripture passages can help us answer the question. In Jn 3:16, John had already explained Christ work as an act of love. “For God, so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” (Jn 3:16) Paul too understood Christ’s mission as an act of God’s love. Rom 5:32 says, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” In today’s gospel, Jesus stands before the last frontier to be conquered in his saving work – death. Only love will conquer death. Not any love… only God’s love can conquer death. In the same way that the death of Lazarus was symbolic of death’s hold on the human race, Jesus’ love for Mary, Martha and Lazarus was symbolic of God’s universal love that would overpower death. If you and I have any hope for our deceased loved ones, if we have any hope of eternal life, it because Jesus dared to love the world and each person in it.
2. Jesus wept. In recent times I have had two very sad experiences. I have given the sacraments to two dying people, who, when I visited them were alone. I could not help the tears in my eyes. Perhaps there was a reason why they were alone in their dying moments, but I was angry and sad all at the same time. I can identify with Jesus as he wept. Why did Jesus weep? On a very human level, I think he wept for his friend Lazarus. He also wept feeling the grief of Martha and Mary. He wept because he loved them. On the divine level, though, I think Jesus wept in solidarity with the entire human race. I think Jesus was telling the world that God understands our grief. Just as Jesus stood by Martha and Mary, God stands by us in our grief. In fact, I now believe that even when people die alone, they are not alone. Jesus is beside every dying person leading them into eternity.
3. Jesus perturbed, cried out in a loud voice. I said in my earlier point that when I saw two people dying alone, I was sad and angry at the same time. Now John tells us that Jesus was perturbed and that he cried out in a loud voice. Earlier, Jesus love had led him to weep. Jesus weeping is very different than mine and his standing in front of the tomb of Lazarus is very different that my standing in front of the dying people. Jesus is perturbed because he was angry at the destruction and grief that death causes. Only HE can do something about death. +Martha confessed, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” In other words, standing in front of the tomb was God’s own Son. The removal of the tombstone was symbolic of Jesus removing the curse of death. His crying out was indicative of his power over death. Just as he cried out in front of the tomb, he will once more cry out from the cross. “It is finished,” he would say to his Father. And then he would give up the spirit. At that moment, today’s first reading prophecy was fulfilled: “I will put my spirit in you that you may live…” (Ez 32:14) At that moment not just Lazarus but the entire human race was set free. Death would finally be destroyed.
Every Eucharist is a celebration of what Christ has achieved for us. As we bring the bread and the wine and place it on the altar, let us place our loved ones and ourselves on this altar. As as God transforms this bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus, may the death of our loved ones into life, our mortality into eternity. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph