John 11:1-45
Today, in the Lazarus story, we have the third of our Lenten messages from John’s Gospel. The three characters of the Samaritan woman, the man born blind and Lazarus are stand-ins for us, sinful humankind. Water, light and life are the basic necessities that Jesus uses to draw us into the depths of the spirit. The stories are rich in many dimensions of our human experience but specially the theme of conversion for the Lenten journey
Lazarus is described as the one Jesus loved. We, too, are the one Jesus loves. We need to connect with the story. One passage, in particular can open our eyes and heart to this love of Jesus. “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.” (John 11: 33-35)
“Jesus wept” lends itself to many interpretations. The following is especially beautiful.
Jesus was encountering in the death of Lazarus the universal reality of death and evil. It would be this very same face of sin that would shortly draw Him to the Cross. But it was more.
Just as Jesus wept for Lazarus, He weeps for us and the people of all time as we encounter the consequences of sin and death. There is neither any injustice nor any expression of evil that is not embraced by this divine compassion. Whether it is the horror of war or the hatred of prejudice or the ravages of disease and poverty, they touch the heart of Jesus. God’s answer to the great mystery of evil and death was to enter into it. This is the Passion and Death. But this was not the end. He passed through it with a transforming love. In the Resurrection God has the last word and it is not death but life. It is not hatred but an unending and universal love.
We have many tombs in the journey of life that make us feel like the dry bones Ezekiel describes in the passage about the dry bones. It may be the paralyzing hostility within a family situation. It may be the empty house of a new widow or widower. Often it is the life draining consequences of the abuse of alcohol or drugs or more often, the abusive relationships that flow from these addictions. Then there are the escalating social evils of unemployment or racism or poverty or gang violence. They all are the tombs we experience. They come in all different sizes and durations but they all feel like death. To all of these Jesus speaks the word to us, “Come out, for I am the resurrection and the life!”
The victory over death needs to be embraced and celebrated again. That is the goal of our Lenten journey. We need to learn that not only does Jesus weep for us but Psalm 56:9 tells us He “put my tears in your bottle. Are they not counted?” He reaches out the saving hand that is the “resurrection and the life.”
