Lazarus resurrection art12/25/2023 ![]() ![]() In case you had any doubt consider: in light of the fact that the raising of Lazarus seals the fate of Jesus, Abraham was right. Remember Dives, the Rich Man, in hell because of his maltreatment of the beggar (also named) Lazarus? He asks that the beggar Lazarus be sent to warn his brothers to change their ways, to receive Abraham’s response: “If they do not believe Moses and the prophets, they would not believe even one who rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31). Last week, despite what they saw, the Pharisees remained willfully blind to the miraculous healing of the blind man, denying what was “right before their eyes.” This week, despite seeing a man rise from the dead on the command of this Rabbi, their conclusion is that the giver of life must be put to death (John 11:53). At Jesus’ request, she takes him to the tomb … and raises her brother.įaith remains essential. Mary doesn’t even need to be asked: she just seeks out Jesus while still voicing her lament. So, Martha, do you have faith? She affirms it. And only God has power over life and death. No one reading the Gospel can doubt Jesus’ intent to associate himself with God’s Holy Name, given to Moses: “I AM who am” (Exodus 3:14). “I AM the resurrection and the life,” says Jesus. Martha does, but in some vague, futuristic “resurrection on the last day.” Jesus makes clear to her that the coming of God is not some future when but rather a here-and-now who. In his own ironic style, Thomas even comments on the return trip, “’Let us also go to die with him.’” Now, even when Lazarus was sick, his disciples were reticent about going back to Judea, where “the Jews were just trying to stone you.” Going back there after Jesus made clear Lazarus is already a corpse made even less sense. Jesus makes that clear: lest any disciple misinterpret him, Jesus says bluntly, “Lazarus has died.” This is not just going to be a healing from illness this is going to be an epiphany of God’s power over man’s final enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26), brought on by sin: death. In fact, in order to ensure that “the works of God might be made visible through” Lazarus, he deliberately tarries “in the place where he was” until Lazarus is dead. Last week, he makes clear that the encounter with the man born blind has nothing to do with “who sinned” but that “the works of God might be made visible through him.” That Jesus wants us to draw these lessons, just as he wanted his disciple to do so, is plain. And God’s Light is not just eyes to look but the wisdom to see “the Way, the Truth and the Life,” as Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel. The Living Water of grace overcomes the consequences of sin including, eventually, even death God’s Life-giving is to be, as St. Life is not just Jesus’ temporary restoration to physical life (although it’s that, too) but points to his coming “so that man may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10), eternally. Light is not just a colorful look at Siloam and its neighborhood in Jerusalem - it is seeing, with the help of God’s enlightenment, the Truth of God’s work. Living water is not just the refreshing liquid in Jacob’s Well - it is refreshing, sanctifying grace in the soul. And Jesus really restores Lazarus to life.Īt the same time, because they are real symbols, those realities also contain and point to realities beyond themselves. Jesus really gives the blind man physical sight. Jesus really wanted a draught of water at noontime, after traveling all morning, in Sychar. They do not “just” point to something beyond themselves or “stand in” for a bigger reality. ![]() When Jesus invokes physical realities - water, light, life - they are real. This week, Jesus’ encounter with the dead Lazarus points to God as the Source and Giver of Life … and also the foretaste of Christ’s conquest of death that we will celebrate in two weeks on Easter. Last week, Jesus’ encounter with the man born blind pointed to Christ as enlightening every man through Baptism. ![]() Two weeks ago, Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan Woman pointed to the “living waters” of grace. As previously noted, the Gospels of the Third, Fourth and Fifth Sundays of Lent can always use the “scrutiny readings” - the readings for preparing catechumens for Easter Baptism - which happen also to be the stipulated readings for this Year A of the Sunday Lectionary. ![]()
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