Lent 5 A

Fifth Sunday of Lent "A"

l. WHO: l) Narrator, 2) Jesus, 3) Disciples, Thomas, 4) Martha, 5)
Mary, 6) Lazarus, 7) Jews.

2. WHERE: Stages where action takes place:
l) Home of Mary, Martha, Lazarus in Bethany near
Jerusalem (under two miles away).
2) beyond the Jordan.
3) Place near Bethany of Jerusalem where Jesus
stops.
4) Tomb.
5) Sanhedrin.

3. WHAT:
a) Jesus comes from "across the Jordan" to Bethany (10:40-ll:l-l9).
b) Martha comes out to meet Jesus (ll:20-22).
c) Jesus declares: "I am the resurrection and the life."
(ll:23-27)
a')Mary comes out to meet Jesus. (ll: 28-32).
b')Lazarus comes out of the tomb (ll:33-44).

4. OBSERVATIONS:
l) Constant motion: message of distress goes from Bethany near
Jerusalem to Jesus. (We are not told how.) Jesus and his disciples move toward Bethany. The Jewish friends of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus come out from Jerusalem to
comfort Martha and Mary (ll:l9). Martha moves to Jesus. Martha moves to
Mary. Mary moves to Jesus. All move to the tomb. Lazarus moves out of
the tomb. Informers move to Pharisees. Jesus and his company move to
Ephraim in northern Judea.
2) Death-rising to new life motif runs through the whole
story, for it is applied to Lazarus, to Jesus, to the individual
christian (vv. l6,23-26) and to the christian community (vv. 50-52).
3) The meaning of the miracle is explained at the beginning
(v. 4) "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."in the centre (vv. 23-26), and toward the end of the account (v.
40).
4) The point that Lazarus is really dead is made in several
different ways. Jesus delays two days. The disciples misunderstand
Jesus to mean that he is asleep and Jesus clarifies that he is dead.
ll:l7 The mention of four days in the tomb. ll:39 He has been dead four
days. This to combat the common belief of the time that the spirit of
the dead lingered for three days; no chance that Lazarus was in a comma.
5) Martha's opening words to Jesus express both complaint and
confidence. Her confession rings more of the old than it does of the
radical new life offered by Jesus.
6) Jesus' tears may be a sign of his love for this family, as
some in the crowd suppose, but that is not all they signify. Jesus
weeps also because of the destructive power of death that is still at
work in the world. Once again one sees the intersection of the intimate
and the cosmic: the pain of this family reminds Jesus of the pain of the
world.
7) Martha and Mary model how people are to live as they
struggle to free themselves from the power of death that defines and
limits them and move to embrace the new promises and possibilities of
life available through Jesus.
8) Lazarus' resurrection parallels that of Jesus himself:
a) a mourning Mary at the tomb (ll:3l and 20:ll); b) a cave tomb closed
with a stone (ll:38, 4l and 20:l); c) grave clothes plus a face cloth
(ll:44 and 20:6-7); d) a special role given to Thomas (ll:l6 and 20:28-
28).
9) Note again the listing of titles for Jesus: Lord, Son of
God, the Christ, who is coming into the world, teacher, rabbi, "I am the
resurrection and the life."

l0) Jesus has given (physical) life to Lazarus as a sign of his power to
give eternal life on this earth (realized eschatology, present time) and as a
promise that on the last day he will raise the dead (final eschatology, not yet,
future).


Development of homily:

Introduction to Mass: today's readings are a reminder that we all run
into dead ends (callejones sin salida) in our lives. In the first
reading we hear of the Jews dead end. They are in exile in Babylon away
from their homeland and have been so for many years. This captivity and
exile appears to be a dead end. In the second reading St. Paul speaks of the dead
end which is sin. And in the Gospel the ultimate dead end is death.

Homily: Introduction to Gospel. This Sunday the Gospel is again a kind
of drama or teatro. We have the different persons: narrator, Jesus,
disciples and Thomas, Mary, Martha, Lazarus and the Jews. We have four
different stages on which the action takes place: the home of Martha,
Mary and Lazarus; the place where Jesus is when he receives the message
and where he stays for two days; the place near Bethany where Jesus
arrives and the sisters come out to meet him; and the tomb of Lazarus.
There is plenty of action or movement in the Gospel. Lots of arrivals and departures.

1) The Gospel writer John makes the point four times that Lazarus is
dead. He does this because the Jews had a belief that after a person
died their spirit hovered near for three days and then left. John wants
his readers including us to know that Lazarus was dead. (l) He states
that Jesus delays two days before going up to Judea. It was a day's
journey for the message about Lazarus to reach Jesus. He delayed for
two days, and then it took another day to reach Bethany (four days).
(2) In Jesus' dialogue with the disciples he first says that Lazarus is
sleeping and he is going to wake him. But when the disciples
misunderstand this to mean a natural sleep. Jesus says "clearly" he is
dead. (3) When Jesus arrives near Bethany the narrator tells us that
Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. (4) At the tomb Martha
says, "Lord it has been four days now, surely there will be a stench."
John wishes us to know that this is not a case of a coma or some kind of
resuscitation. This is a raising from the dead. A conquering of one of
our greatest enemies: death.
2) We follow Martha and Mary in this story. In some ways they are
similar to the story of Martha and Mary in Luke's Gospel when Jesus
comes to eat at their home. There the active one is Martha, busy about the preparations and she scolds Jesus. Mary is sitting at Jesus feet listening. In this story Martha is also the active one who goes out to meet Jesus. She leaves her culture of mourning in the house to go out to Jesus. She speaks with a mixture of anger, disappointment, and hope. Her first words to Jesus are, "Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died." These later are the exact words that Mary will use. Jesus tells Martha that Lazarus will rise again. She believes he will rise again in the Resurrection of the dead on the last day.
Jesus affirms this. "I am the Resurrection and the Life whoever
believes in me, even if they die, will live..." but then Jesus adds,
"whoever is alive and believes in me will never die. Do you believe
this?" To the question, Martha has the right words, "I believe you are
the Messiah, the Son of God who is to come into the world." But she
doesn't completely understand the power of life that Jesus has. Because
when Jesus orders the stone taken away, Martha reminds Jesus and us,
that he probably stinks because he has been dead for four days. So
Jesus has a surprise in store for Martha. He gives Lazarus life not
just after death in the resurrection of the last day, but restores him
to life now, in the present.
Martha's relationship with her sister seems to have gotten better
since the Lukan story. Here in John she does not scold her sister Mary
but simply goes and calls her saying, "The Teacher is here and is asking
for you." When Mary arrives at the place where Jesus is she fell at his
feet. She is in the same position as in the Lukan story.
3) We follow Jesus in this story also. What are some of the things
that Jesus does? We usually note first of all that he weeps. But he
also loves Martha, Mary and Lazarus. He calls out loudly to Lararus. He
raises Lazarus to death. But he also prays. But John also puzzles us
with some others things that Jesus does. He delays for two days before
coming to Bethany. He did this at Cana with his mother (chapter 2), with the royal official (chapter 4) and with his brothers (chapter 7). Sandra Schneider interprets the delay this way: "The purpose of these refusals and/or delays in Jesus' response is to emphasize the sovereign independence of Jesus' action in relation to human initiative."
When Jesus tells them that he is going to go up to Bethany. They
caution him that people have just been trying to stone him. Their
caution is not to go. But Jesus goes anyway. God also does some things in our lives that puzzle us. We do some things that puzzle others. We may even puzzle ourselves.
Jesus also "was troubled in spirit, moved by the deepest emotions." What does this signify?
Jesus is troubled in spirit at the death of a friend. Death can do that
to all of us, trouble us in spirit. But the Greek word here has the
meaning also of being angry. Jesus is angry before the reign of death,
the suffering caused to this family that he loves. He also seems to be
angry at the unbelief of the people. Some criticize him: "He opened
the eyes of that blind man. Why could he not have done something to
stop this man from dying."
4) Lastly what do the second parts of Jesus words to Martha mean for
us, "and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die." Jesus
promises us his life, eternal life while we are still on earth. We must realize and believe in his intimate real presence in and through his physical absence. "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." (chapter 20:29) How do we receive the life of Jesus here on earth? When we exemplify Jesus' active non violent resistance. When we pray. When we do some good deed for another. When we try to get closer to Jesus. When we receive the sacraments. And on and on... And what is the promise of Jesus life for us now? Jesus has the power to conquer death. When the death of a friend or family members is before us we must recall the promise of eternal life. But Jesus has the power to conquer many different kinds of deaths. Suffering, sickness are types of death. Jesus has the power to overcome these deaths, one possibility is even through a healing. He can overcome death in the form of sin, captivity, addictions, exile, war, etc. Jesus can overcome various kinds of "dead ends." He can give us the help to discover a way out, to resolve problems, difficulties. Do you have problems with your children, with your parents, in a relationship with another person? Jesus has the power to give us hope when we have no hope. Jesus has the power over death which is the most powerful dead end. We must live with the life of Christ now to live with the eternal life of Christ forever.
During Lent we hear Jesus say, I am the Resurrection and the Life,
I am the light of the world, I am living water. In John's Gospel he
also tells us I am the Way the Truth and the Life. I am the Good
Shepherd, I am the vine and you are the branches. Let us live in this
life.