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Reflections on the Fifth Sunday of Lent

By Maynard Brennan

The readings for
this Sunday:

Ezekiel 37:12-14

Romans 8:8-11

John 11:1-45

This Gospel is not so much about the divinity of Jesus (as it might seem to be at first reading), as it is about humanity. Certainly this is an amazing miracle, raising a dead man to life, and only Jesus as God, could do this. But the story reveals Jesus as man. For one thing, Jesus procrastinates, a very human trait. In fact, to a skeptic, it might seem that Jesus is teasing, perhaps for a dramatic effect. Let us look at the narrative again: Jesus learns that his dear friend, Lazarus, is seriously ill. Instead of showing concern, He brushes off the message (messenger) saying it is nothing worth considering. Although he loves Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, he procrastinates for two days before taking action. He then continues his journey to Judea, only a short distance away, which takes him at least four days. (To keep the proper perspective, however, we must not forget that Jesus from the start tells his listeners that all this procrastination is that "God may be glorified.") After Jesus reaches the outskirts of Judea, He receives another message: He is too late, for Lazarus is already dead and entombed. Then he pauses again and waits while Martha goes backs to her home to fetch Mary. Finally, when the whole family is together and a significant number of witnesses are assembled, and everybody is wondering just when Jesus is going to act, He does the perfectly and highly dramatic thing:

He stretches forth his hand and says: "Take away the stone." You can imagine what Cecil B. DeMille would do at this historic moment; the drums would be rolling, the trumpets blaring, the music deafening. "Lazarus, come forth." And Lazarus does just that: he comes forth, still in funeral clothes, his face covered, and trailing clouds of stench behind him. Jesus ends the suspense; Jesus the man, the superb storyteller, the excellent dramatist, has accomplished his stated purpose to glorify God and predict his own resurrection. A divine purpose, a human means.

Epilogue

While we as orthodox Christians accept the fact that Christ was a human being, with a body just as ours, capable of reasoning, of feeling, with ten fingers, ten toes, etc., we are sometimes incapable of accepting him as completely human. Yes, he can cry (although in Lazarus' case he is not weeping for Lazarus -- he knows better -- but because Martha and Mary are weeping). But can or does he laugh loud and boisterously as we do from time to time, does he tell or listen to a good joke, does he dance, does he sing, does he have a back ache after sleeping on the ground all night, do certain foods upset his stomach, does he go to the "rest room" but not to rest, and when he dies does he die as a human, not as God, and when he comes back to life on Easter does he not resurrect as a human, not as God who cannot die?

Accept Christ as God, accept him as human, completely.