The Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 27, 2023

John 11, 1–45

Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to Jesus saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.” So the disciples said to him, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.” But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. So then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.” So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go to die with him.” When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”  When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The teacher is here and is asking for you.” As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. For Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met him. So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”  So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.” 

The Gospel of John contains several long scenes as well as several long accounts of the Lord’s teachings and this, in part, distinguishes it from the first three Gospels, which often contain short sayings, parables, or accounts of miracles.  

St. John’s account of the raising of Lazarus contains much drama, and up until the very end it is not clear what the Lord will do.  Will he raise up Lazarus, as Mary and Martha wish him to do, or will he only comfort them with his presence and his words.  If we read it in a certain way, we may think that he will choose to do the latter, for, we would think. If he meant to raise Lazarus from the dead, why does he not do so right away when he arrives from Galilee?  The answer to that question happens to answer all of our questions about the reason for loss and suffering: “for the glory of God”.  We lose so that we may be given something greater; we suffer so that we may be made worthy of Paradise.  And this shows forth the power and the glory of Almighty God.  With the raising of Lazarus, the followers of the Lord Jesus gain in their faith (“so that you may believe”) and also be prepared for the Lord’s own Death and Rising.  We today continue to rain from the account of this tremendous miracle by seeing how Martha and Mary, far from despairing of the Lord’s help in the midst of the darkness of their grief earnestly and faithfully seek his help, even when it might seem too late.  We also benefit from John’s testimony of the Lord’s emotions here.  Here we see the Lord weeping and his heart moved in his compassion for his friends.  We should consider from this that in the Lord Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, what we see on the outside only hints at what is taking place in his depths.  We see here a sign of how much he loves each of us.  

The last section of this account helps us to understand the forgiveness of sins.  The Lord says to the attendants at the tomb, “Take away the stone.” This is the Lord commanding us to confess our sins.  “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.”  Our conscience rebels against confession, aware of the stench of sin which only grows worse with time before repentance.  “If you believe you will see the glory of God.”  The Lord assures us that if we truly repent and do penance, we will be restored to the state of grace.  “So they took away the stone.”  The sins are confessed.  It is a hard and unpleasant work, but it must be done.  “Lazarus, come out!”  The priest absolves the sin.  “The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth.”  The penitent is absolved but lest he think he is still tied to sin, Christ commands it: “Untie him.  Let him go”, which is the priest saying to the penitent, “Go in peace.”