John’s Gospel narrates a series of seven “signs” performed by Jesus. They began in Cana (2:11) and came to an end with Jesus’ raising of Lazarus. John calls these acts of power “signs,” not miracles. They were meant to stir wonder in those who experienced them — but more than “wow!” They were manifestations of God’s active presence through Jesus who performed them. In the signs believers experienced the “glory” of God which began at Cana. Jesus displays this “glory” by working on behalf of humans facing limitations, sickness and death. Before he raises Lazarus he prays, signifying his union with God; so Jesus’ signs point to God’s life-giving works on our behalf.
Martha and Mary both say the same thing when they meet Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” When Jesus tells Martha, “Your brother will rise,” she professes faith that he will rise, “in the resurrection on the last day,” Then she professes her faith in Christ as “the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” But neither Martha nor Mary express faith that Jesus will resuscitate their dead brother. In fact, when Jesus orders the stone removed Martha says, “Lord, by now there will be a stench, he has been dead for four days.”
The raising of Lazarus is a sign. It points to who Jesus is and confirms what he told Martha: her brother will rise “in the resurrection on the last day.” Those who believe in him will live, even if they die. Indeed, those who believe in him “will never die.” The raising of Lazarus will confirm the faith of those who have put their trust in Christ.
Yes, but Martha and Mary both raise the big issue to Jesus — “If.” “If you had been here….” The others on the scene say similarly, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man had done something so that this man would not die?” Jesus healed the blind man whom he didn’t know. But Lazarus was a close friend, how come he lingered and let Lazarus die?
We could also ask, “How come?” Why does God allow the bad things to happen to us and those we love? “If” God loves the world, why is there such horror in it for so many people? Mary and Martha had to wait four days after Lazarus’ death for Jesus to show up. “How come?” Why don’t we get quick responses to our prayers in situations that are desperate? There are no solutions or easy answers to these important questions. Don’t we wish there were? But we do have the “sign” of what Jesus did for Lazarus, his sister and the Jewish people who were there to comfort Martha and Mary.
The story invites us to faith. In this gospel faith is a verb — you do faith. Martha doesn’t profess faith in doctrinal material, but in the person of Christ — she puts faith in Christ. That’s how it begins, with a personal encounter with the one Thomas would later call, after the resurrection, “My Lord and my God” (20:28).
The witnesses make reference to Jesus’ cure of the blind man — the gospel we heard last week (John 9: 1-41). When Jesus returns to the man who was blind and now sees, he asks, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” In John seeing is linked to believing. Those who “see” the signs put their faith in Christ. Later, the resurrected Jesus will tell Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (20:29). We weren’t there to see the physical signs Jesus performed. But thanks to the signs John’s Gospel reveals to us, we do “see” and we put our faith in Christ.
Lazarus represents each of us. In the tomb he was bound by death. How many apparently-alive people are closed in by one form of death or another? A slow death by fear, anxiety, dependence, sickness, a dead-end job, disintegrating relationships, destructive behavior, etc. Whatever the forms of death, serious or life-sapping, we need to hear the voice of Jesus call us out today. “______, come out!” Fill the blank with your own name.
Jesus doesn’t want to just give us an energy pick-up, like a high potency caffeine drink. He wants us to enjoy a resurrected life, even before our bodily death. John’s Gospel repeats this theme throughout: if we believe in Christ, we already have eternal life because we have a share in the life of the Father and the Son.
We are coming to the end of Lent, preparing to celebrate Christ’s resurrection and our own. During Lent we may have been able to name our “dead spots” and the ways they have drained us of life. From one tomb or another we hear Jesus fulfill the promise he made earlier in John, “Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live” (5:25).
We hope that Lent hasn’t served to mire us in our guilt and shortcomings. These Sundays in Lent give us an opportunity to hear the life-giving Word of God. Perhaps our Lenten practice included reading and praying the Word during the weekday Mass, or in our homes. If we were attentive we would have heard what we hear again today through the prophet Ezekiel. God intends to “open your graves and have you rise from them.” And again, as John puts it: Jesus is “the resurrection and the life.”
Our identification with Lazarus runs through the whole story, right up to the end. When he emerged from the tomb Jesus ordered, “Untie him and let him go.” I would think Lazarus, freed from the grip of death, would have returned to life a changed man. Don’t you?
Wouldn’t Lazarus have a whole new appreciation of life, the way people who have survived serious illness do? A cancer survivor told me, “Now I don’t sweat the small stuff.” I imagine Lazarus would have: appreciated and returned the love his sisters had for him. He would have been grateful and celebrated the simple gifts he might have overlooked previously — water, family meals, laughter with friends, wildflowers, a baby’s laugh, birds, farm animals, etc.
As Lent ends and we come to new life through Christ’s resurrection, we join Mary, Martha, Lazarus and the many who were with them — all those who had “seen what he had done [and] began to believe in him.” Now we re-evaluate how we live, notice our misplaced priorities and focus on the present life we have in Christ and the promise of the future he offers us. Now is also the time to look around at those in need in our families, community and world and ask the Lord, “What can I do to untie them and set them free?