LENT-A-V: Ez 37:12-14;   Rom 8:8-11;   Jn 11:1-45

Today’s Gospel reading presents us with two messages. First, it tells us that our living faith in Jesus will raise all our physical bodies in the final resurrection. Secondly, especially now, with the approaching of Easter Sunday, we are called symbolically to resurrect ourselves from sin to grace by partaking in the Sacrament of reconciliation.

Just like what we heard in last week’s gospel, we see a spectrum of different responses –to the theme of “death.” The disciples tried to dissuade our Lord from going personally to Bethany, which is close to Jerusalem because they feared death for Jesus and for themselves. We have Martha and Mary, who had earlier appealed to our Lord to come and heal their brother because they believed that He could postpone death with a miracle. Now that Lazarus is dead, they saw no need for His presence. His presence now was too little too late! Then we have Mary incapacitated by her tremendous grief because she believed death was the end of the road for her brother. She couldn’t even come out to meet Jesus. And finally, we have Martha, who believed in the resurrection of the dead, but only saw it as a future and ethereal reality that would take place at the end of time. Only our Lord, who feared neither death nor saw it as the end of life, could receive the news of His friend’s death and be gladdened because, as He told His own disciples: “this sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it, the Son of God will be glorified.”

How can Lazarus’ death bring glory to God and to Jesus? The resuscitation of Lazarus was a prophecy in the form of action. It foreshadows Christ’s own resurrection and, at the same time, anticipates the resurrection of all the righteous. Lazarus’ death and subsequent resuscitation will show that God and Christ have power over death, man’s most ancient enemy – an enemy which we thought to be inevitable and undefeatable … at least until now.

Lazarus’ death brings God glory than if Jesus had only healed the sickness of Lazarus. If Jesus had been there before the death of Lazarus, then he would only heal him from his sickness. But raising someone dead for four days brings more glory to God than healing a sick. Jesus stayed two more days in the place when he heard of Lazarus’ sickness. Therefore, when God delays in answering our prayers, it may be that God would get more glory by that delay, as in the case of Lazarus.

Jesus loved Lazarus much. And so, when he stood at Lazarus’ tomb, he wept bitterly. The people saw and said, “Look how he loved him!” [Remember in this context what message Martha sent to Jesus, ‘the one you love is sick’]. If Jesus loves me/you, he would cry even today for my/your death, our spiritual death more than our physical death.

 Jesus said, “Roll that stone away.” In the warm climate of the eastern Mediterranean, the dead body would rot and stink. As He instructed them to remove the stone that sealed the tomb of Lazarus, the family members of Lazarus and on-lookers would have been appalled by such a morbid request and thought of desecrating the body of a dead man. Therefore, Lazarus’ sister said, “Don’t roll that stone away. Leave things as they are. The smell would be unbearable.” Sometimes we are like her and say, “Leave things as they are? Let’s not touch this or that issue. It might explode in our faces.” Indeed, we even say, “Let’s not open a can of worms. But Jesus was opening a tomb of worms. He said, “Roll that stone away.” And then he called, “Lazarus,” and he commanded, “Come out!” And that dead man came out and started to live. Lazarus is bound when he comes out. So, Jesus says, “Unbind him and let him go free.”

Take note of this: If Jesus could bring Lazarus out alive from the tomb, why couldn’t he unbind him himself by just saying, let him be unbound. Whatever we can do, God wants us to do. We cannot bring a dead man back to life, but we can unbind somebody and let him or her free. When Jesus changed water into wine, he could have said, let these stone jars be filled with water, instead of asking the servants to fill those jars with water. So, whatever we can do, God does not want to do and let us just sit idle.

Jesus wants to do for us, for all humanity, what he did for that dead man. He wants us to live, and he gives us the gift of life. He said he came that we may have life, life in fullness, not just a kind of so-so life. He also gives us hope as we hear in his dialogue with Martha when he asserts with those unforgettable words: “I AM the Resurrection and the Life.”  This is the core statement of the whole story and is one of the seven great ‘I AM’ statements in John’s gospel. 

Let’s examine this lent; how much of a life do I think I am having? Do I live and enjoy life with the hope that I live and will rise with Christ, not just now but in the life after here? Am I thoughtless like the rich man who had a lot of harvests and said to himself, let me tear my barn down and build a larger one and enjoy life, unconcerned about others and unconcerned about tomorrow? Or in the story of a rich man and Lazarus at his door who later regretted his plight when he saw Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham.  May the risen Lord who had once asked Lazarus to come out of the tomb help us to come out of our tombs of sin and inactivity in this Lenten season.