Fifth Sunday of Lent

Jan 30 2025

A Sister Speaks

So, I’m pushy. At least that’s what Mary was always telling me. “Martha, you don’t have to say everything that comes into your mind,” she would whisper. Like the time when she left me to do all the work in the kitchen while she plopped herself down at Jesus’ feet. No sense going into that—you know the story.

But this time being pushy paid off. Our younger and only brother had taken ill with fever. We waited to send word, thinking it would pass, but then early one morning, our beloved Lazarus died. We were heartbroken. He was our protector, our friend, the apple of both our eyes. Never to hear his voice, or pretend annoyance at his silly jokes at our expense. Neither of us could stop crying. As soon as word came that Jesus had reached the outskirts of the village, I went out to him. I was beside myself with grief: “Where were you? Why didn’t you come? If you had, he would not have died.” My anger and sorrow broke against him like waves during a summer storm. He listened, then spoke: “He will rise again.” “Yes, I know . . . on the last day.” His eyes looked into my soul: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever lives and believes in me will never die, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” That is the question, isn’t it? Do you believe his words? Do you believe him? Do you believe he is the resurrection and life? Well, do you?

Consider/Discuss

Is there anything you want to ask Martha? Or say to her?
What does it mean to believe Jesus is the resurrection and the life?

Responding to the Word

Lord, death seems so merciless, so final. It is hard to believe life can ever be restored. Help us to trust your word and the promise of the Father that death will not be victorious. Help us to place our trust in you as the Lord of life.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

The passage from Ezekiel testifies to God’s absolute and unconditional control over the powers of life and death, over destruction and restoration. The prophet employs the metaphor of the restoration of life to dead bodies to illustrate the unbelievable nature of the restoration of the nation. The people probably thought that neither restoration was possible. However, the prophet is insisting that anything is possible with God. If God says it, regardless of how incredible it might appear, it will surely happen. This decisiveness is underscored in the last words of the passage, “I have promised, and I will do it” (37:14).

Paul contrasts two ways of living: life in the flesh and life in the spirit. Life in the flesh (limited human nature) cannot please God. Life in the spirit, on the other hand, is a form of union with God. Paul assures the Christians that they are in the spirit if the Spirit of God dwells within them. In true Trinitarian fashion, he likens the Spirit of God to the Spirit of Christ, and he maintains that it is through this Spirit that resurrection is promised. The Spirit of God raised Jesus, and that same Spirit will raise those who live in the Spirit of Christ.

The death and resurrection of Lazarus point to the future death and resurrection of Jesus and of everyone who believes in him. When Jesus told Martha that her brother would rise, she probably thought that he meant at the general resurrection, a position taught by the Pharisees. Jesus then declared, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). The meaning of this claim is the heart of Jesus’ teaching here. Belief in Jesus establishes a bond of life that not even death can sever. Although believers die physically, this bond will bring them back to life. Furthermore, this bond will survive physical death and keep believers from an eternal death. A solemn question is posed: “Do you believe?”

Jan 30 2025

A Heart Renewed

One of the earliest pictures of Jesus I can remember portrayed him at prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. I still see his hands, clasped tight. They spoke to me of an inner struggle long before I knew about his words, “Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will” (Mark 14:36). More than any other scene in the Gospels, this one brought home what it meant to say Jesus was truly man.

Today’s Gospel has been called John’s version of the agony in the garden. The word agony (agonia in Greek) means struggle, and we can hear the struggle in Jesus’ awareness that “the hour” he has spoken of before in John’s Gospel, beginning at Cana, has finally arrived. It is the hour of his being lifted up—the hour of both his glory and his crucifixion. It is why he came into the world, and yet we hear him say, “I am troubled.” We hear him wrestling with himself, asking for release from the hour, but then recognizing that it holds “the purpose for which I came.”

Hebrews affirms this when it says “he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (5:7). He was able to bear the suffering and become the source of eternal salvation for all who listen to him and follow in his steps.

Consider/Discuss

Do you desire a new heart? What would be different about it?
How do Jesus’ words about the seed falling into the ground, dying, and only then producing fruit challenge you? What needs to die in you?

Responding to the Word

Loving God, give us a new heart in these final days of Lent, a heart that carries within it your loving imprint, that we may always know your will and yield to it, even when it calls for a dying of some kind. In such dying, may we trust that you will bring forth new life.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

Although Jeremiah was a southern prophet who prophesied long after the collapse of the northern kingdom, his message was full of promise for both northern and southern kingdoms. He announced that in the future time of eschatological fulfillment, both kingdoms would be united once again in a new covenant. The old covenant included laws inscribed on stone tablets; the law of the new covenant will be written on their hearts. Each individual will be directed from within. This will require total openness to God and the ability to discern God’s will from a myriad of possibilities.

The passage from Hebrews states that Jesus endured torment of body and anguish of soul. He can fully understand human distress and the desire to escape it. He can speak to those in affliction as one who himself was ravaged by sorrow, but who nonetheless clung fast to God’s will. From a human point of view, he is one with the human condition. From God’s point of view, he is the one who can show others how to accept with docility circumstances over which they have no control. Just as he learned to accept God’s designs in his life, so now he teaches others to do the same.

The Gospel reading reports the approach of “some Greeks.” This mention of Greeks suggests the inclusion of the Gentile world in the salvation brought by Jesus. Jesus replies to their approach with an announcement: His hour has come! This is both the hour of his glorification and the hour that he dreads. The relationship between his anguish and his exaltation is demonstrated through the image of the grain of wheat that must die if it is to rise. The interior struggle that Jesus endured is revealed in his prayer. Should he ask to be preserved from this hour of anguish/exaltation? But it was for this hour that he came into the world in the first place. Therefore, he accepts it.

Jan 24 2025

Sweet Mystery of Life—and Death

Martha cried out, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!” What had she been thinking and discussing with Mary during the days of her brother’s illness and now after his death? Surrounded by friends, she did not find the one friend that she was looking for—he who had the ability to help. She may have whispered, “Jesus, where are you? Where are you right now when Mary and Lazarus and I so need you?”

Have you ever been in a situation in which someone who could have chosen to help you would not? Someone who is in a position of authority—who you thought had your back and did not? The betrayal cuts deeply, causing anguish, high blood pressure, anger, grief, hurt, and sleepless nights—in short, a crisis of trust in the one who could have helped, but did not. Where was he/she when I needed him/her?

We don’t always know why things work out as they do. Human beings let us down. Sometimes it feels as though God lets us down— our prayers are not answered as we expect. These are our personal crucifixion moments. We may later see clearly why things happened and God is glorified; these are resurrection moments. Sometimes we never know why, and life and death remain a mystery.

In today’s story, the Lord did finally show up. Then he quaked with grief. Jesus wept. For the sake of his friends, he called Lazarus out of the tomb. It was personally perilous for him to do so. But out of love, he revealed his power. At the same time, he was about to take the pains of the world upon himself. When he saw his friends’ grief, did that reveal how much they would suffer from his upcoming death? No wonder he trembled.

Consider/Discuss

Every person has foretastes of death and resurrection in this life. In difficult moments, how have you (or have you not) identified with Martha’s whisper, “Where are you, Lord?”
In bleak moments, we may be tempted to give ourselves (and others) glib answers that do not satisfy or are suspect or hollow, shallow answers like “God wanted another angel in heaven” or “Well, it was God’s will.” Or . . . How does that artificial certainty belittle the mystery dimension of God and life? How else could we respond more truly to the puzzlement of betrayal and/or grief?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, I hope you don’t mind the honesty, but sometimes it feels as though you aren’t showing up. We need you. We believe that you are the Resurrection and the Life; help our unbelief. Give us the strength to cling tightly to your steadfast love when life bears down hard. Most of all, thank you for taking our pains upon yourself. Ezekiel’s dry bones give us hope in this parched valley. We look forward to the day when you bring us to a new and fresh life, good and gracious God.