Jesus said to the Jews: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” So the Jews said to him, “Now we are sure that you are possessed. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.
The Gospel of the Lord.
***
***
I was once a third-grade teacher in a public school in Newark. One of the first bits of advice I received from veteran teachers was: “Never raise your voice.”
If you raise your voice, then you’ve already lost control. What you wanted your students to do before, will certainly not happen now.
***
In today’s Gospel, the scribes and Pharisees continue their lengthy confrontation with Jesus. We’ve been hearing this back-and-forth between them all week, and these religious authorities simply don’t get it.
Jesus has made fantastic claims – and today he lays it all out there – “I AM.” Meaning, before the world existed, Jesus existed. He has been – and always will be – alive because he is God. As the Letter to the Hebrews states, “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.”
Spewing with frustration, the authorities raise their voices and resort to calling Jesus names like “demon-possessed” because they do not believe him.
They cannot.
Jesus doesn’t fit inside the box they’ve made for God.
***
I’m sure that’s something we’ve all experienced before.
At times, God seems bigger, stranger, different from whom we’d imagined.
Maybe you felt this way when you understood a particular quote in the bible for the first time.
Maybe your eyes were opened after witnessing a miracle (we’ve had several examples of physical healing in our parish!)
Maybe you asked God for something and you didn’t receive it. So, your view of God changed.
Or maybe you struggle to understand all of what Catholics believe – our sins are forgiven in confession; the Eucharist is not bread – it is Jesus; the pope is the authoritative representative of Christ on earth.
***
Unlike the scribes and Pharisees who resorted to name calling and violence when they failed to understand Jesus, may our hearts become softer and our minds more open to accepting him for who he is – God – yesterday, today, and forever.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.” They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
The Gospel of the Lord.
***
***
“You will die in your sins.”
That’s a grim promise.
But Jesus is reading the hearts of these men standing before him. They do not see him as the “way” to God; as the “way” to happiness; or as the “way” to anything good.
Rather, they see him as “in” the way.
***
Jesus is “in” the way of their religion.
He’s “in” the way of their egos.
He’s “in” the way of their convenient lifestyles.
He’s upsetting their plans, flipping tables, and turning their belief system upside down, while dining with tax collectors, forgiving sinners, and breaking the Sabbath.
On Palm Sunday we will see the scribes and Pharisees’ frustrated desire to remove Jesus from their way finally begin to unfold.
***
As Christians, Jesus is always “the” way to anything good, which is why we should seek ways to strengthen our relationship with him.
In what ways can I draw closer to the Lord or better understand his Word?
***
As the Psalmist reminds us, “LORD, your Word is a light for my steps and a lamp for my path.”
A path that leads to life in abundance.
***
***
Image credits: (1) CL Church Leaders (2) Jesus, Wikipedia (3) Live Science
The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “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.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”
He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And when he had said this, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
The Gospel of the Lord.
***
***
There was once an elderly couple married for seventy years. One day, the wife died and went to heaven.
Some years later, the husband died and was greeted by his wife at the pearly gates. She led him in and showed him all around – the flowing fountains, the golf course, the sun that never set.
In the middle of the tour, she stopped, overhearing her husband grumbling. “What are you complaining about?” she said.
“If it had not been for that darn oatmeal,” he said, “I could’ve been here years ago!”
***
Heaven.
We all want to reach those pearly gates… Just not yet.
Mary and Martha know the feeling.
In today’s Gospel, their brother Lazarus is deathly ill. So, they do the only thing they can to save him – they call upon Jesus, the miracle worker, who “loves” them dearly.
Then they sit and wait.
Although we know how this Gospel passage ends – Lazarus is brought back to life – consider the gut-wrenching roller coaster this family endured before Jesus decided to act.
***
First, there was the sense of helplessness that Mary and Martha felt watching Lazarus suffer. After calling upon the Lord, they waited patiently, but to no avail.
Lazarus dies before Jesus arrives.
Even after Lazarus dies, Mary and Martha wait another four days before Jesus shows up. What makes this so hard is the fact that Jesus knew Lazarus was sick, but did nothing about it. So, when she sees him, Martha runs up to Jesus, falls at his feet, and says tearfully:
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
What a heart-crushing testament of faith. “Lord, if you had been here.”
The faith of these sisters is amplified a few verses later when Mary runs out and says the same thing: “Lord, if you had been here.”
***
When Jesus sees their sobbing, he becomes “perturbed and deeply troubled.”
This word, “perturbed,” literally means to be, “angry within yourself.”
What was Jesus “angry” about?
While the Gospel does not tell us, we can imagine what might’ve weighed on his heart.
Perhaps Jesus was “angry” at death for stealing his friend, Lazarus. Maybe he was struck with emotion deep within himself, knowing that he will die next.
Or maybe he was “angry” about the lack of faith present among the mourners.
While Mary and Martha expressed their faith in the Lord’s power to heal physically, their words also reveal the limit of their faith. “Lord, if you had been here,” implies that Jesus can do nothing now; Lazarus is dead.
***
In a dramatic escalation, Jesus commands the bystanders to take away the stone. Martha’s doubt intensifies as she warns Jesus, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.”
Undeterred, Jesus exclaims, “Lazarus, come out!”
Suddenly, he wiggles his way to the tomb’s entrance, still covered in dusty burial cloths.
Finally, the Gospel states, “Many began to believe in him.”
***
It’s hard to imagine the emotional roller coaster these siblings – Mary, Martha, and Lazarus – just endured. First, Lazarus is sick. Then they wait. Then Lazarus dies. Four days later, Jesus shows up.
While he could’ve healed Lazarus while he was ill, Jesus waited and let his friend die because he knew that this experience of having Lazarus brought back to life would increase their faith, which will be of paramount importance as they approach the Cross on Good Friday.
***
So many of us have felt like Mary and Martha. We’ve stood at the graveside weeping, saying, “Lord, if you had been here.”
But the Lord reminds us today, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me – even if he dies – will live forever.”
As we approach Good Friday, may we remember what happens to Lazarus today and prepare our hearts for what will come – the empty tomb on Easter Sunday.
And eventually our own.
***
***
Image credits: (1) Pastor Mike, Road to Life church (2) Quora (3) The Gospel Coalition
