Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT (Cycle A)
Readings:
Ezekiel 37:12-14
Psalm 130:1-6b, 7b-8
Romans 8:8-11
John 11:1-45 or 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45
Abbreviations: NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition, NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name, YHWH (Yahweh).
The two Testaments reveal God's divine plan for humanity, which is why we read and relive the events of salvation history contained in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Responsorial Psalm of the Fifth Sunday tells us Yahweh is a mighty and gracious God who, in faithfulness to His covenant, has done "great things" for His people. The Psalm and the First Reading reflect on Israel's Exodus experience. However, we can see in the Exodus of the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt a pattern of the events in which Jesus will lead a new Exodus. Jesus is the new Moses, liberating His covenant people from slavery to sin and death and bringing them to the Promised Land of Heaven! Jesus's new Exodus of redemption became possible through His death and resurrection. It is the event we solemnly remember and celebrate on the Seventh Sunday.
The Theme of the Readings: New Life
The theme of the readings is God's gift of spiritual awakening
and transformation that leads to "new life" in an intimate covenant
relationship with God. In the First Reading, God promised His people, suffering
in the Babylonian exile, that one day He would send His Spirit to gather and
reconcile His scattered and divided people, resurrecting them to "new life" beyond
the limits of physical life.
The Responsorial Psalm continues the theme of "new life." It is one of the seven Penitential Psalms in which God promises to redeem His people from their past iniquities. The First Advent of Jesus Christ fulfills this Penitential Psalms. Jesus's very name in Hebrew, Yahshua, means "God is salvation;" It carries the promise that God will redeem His people from their sins and give them a "new life" through a new covenant relationship with Him.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome that Christ makes it possible to live "according to the Spirit" of God. He emphasized that only those reborn in the Spirit of God through the Sacrament of Baptism can truly belong to Him and have the right to be called children in the family of God. Paul wrote that living in the spirit of Christ causes Christians to look forward to being alive in a way that makes earthy life a pale counterfeit kind of living. Life in the Spirit is a long-term investment that will reap enormous benefits because God stands behind that investment.
The raising of Lazarus from the dead in our Gospel Reading is a sign of Jesus's victory over death that He accomplished in His bodily resurrection from the grave. It is a sign of the hope of the promised "new life" that awaits all of us who follow Christ by submitting to a spiritual rebirth through water and the Spirit in the Sacrament of Baptism (the Second Reading). It is also the promise of the bodily resurrection of the dead at the end of time when Christ returns to claim His Church and raise her to glory (1 Thes 4:13-16; 5:23; Rev 20:11-15).
The prophesied anointing of "new life" through God's Spirit promised by the prophets comes to fulfillment in Jesus Christ. He continually pours out the Holy Spirit upon His Church to associate her with His self-sacrificial offering to the Father on the altar of the Cross. Jesus kept His promise to His disciples in His homily at the Last Supper when, fifty days after His Resurrection, He sent the promised "Advocate," the Holy Spirit, to His Church on the Jewish feast of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit's mission is to continually fill, indwell, nourish, heal, and direct the people of His Church in their generational journey to bear witness to His love and intercession for the world.
The ministry of God the Holy Spirit is active in the lives of believers in every generation through the Eucharist and the other Sacraments Christ gave His Church. God's grace continually works through the Holy Spirit to bear the "good fruit" of righteousness in the "new life" in Christ of all baptized Christians as they live, not according to the secular world, but according to the Spirit. After the miracle on Pentecost Sunday, as Peter addressed the crowd of Jews, they cried out to him and the other Apostle: "What are we to, my brothers?" Peter said to them: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call" (Acts 2:38-39).
The First Reading Ezekiel 37:12B-14 ~ God's Promise of a
Bodily Resurrection
12B Thus says the Lord GOD: "O my people, I will open
your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of
Israel. 13 Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and
have you rise from them, O my people! 14 I will put my Spirit in you that you
may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus, you shall know that I am
the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD."
Like the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Southern Kingdom of Judah abandoned Yahweh, the God of Israel, and apostatized into pagan practices. God's judgment for both kingdoms was to exile them from the Promised Land. In 722 BC, the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They captured the survivors and deported them to Assyrian lands to the east. Then, the Assyrians resettled five different pagan peoples in the Assyrian province they called Samaria (2 Kng 17).
God's judgment was delayed for the Southern Kingdom of Judah because a righteous descendant of David would occasionally call the people to national repentance, and God would forgive them. Then, in the sixth century BC, God's judgment fell upon the Southern Kingdom of Judah, which became a vassal state of the Babylonian Empire. A young priest named Ezekiel was among the citizens taken into exile in 597 BC. From his exile in Babylon, God directed Ezekiel to prepare his fellow countrymen and women for the final destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple. A decade after Ezekiel's exile, the nation of Judah revolted against its Babylonian overlords. The Babylonians invaded Judah and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 587/6 BC, taking most of the population away into exile. However, after the devastation and exile, God's message changed. Yahweh ordered Ezekiel to give His covenant people a message of forgiveness and the promise of future restoration.
With the possible exception of the opening verses, no other passage from Ezekiel is as well-known or well-loved as Ezekiel 37:1-14. In its prophecy, God compares the exiles of Israel (from both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah) to the bones of the dead scattered on a battlefield (Ezek 37:1-5). In Ezekiel's vision in 37:6-11, God brings the bones together to form corpses, but they have no life. Then in verses 12-14, Yahweh promises that He will not only open the graves of the dead and flesh out their bodies but, by the power of His Spirit, He will breathe new life into the corpses of His people so that, restored to life, He can resettle them in the Promised Land.
At the end of Ezekiel's prophetic vision, Yahweh told Ezekiel, "I have promised, and I will do it." For Christians, Jesus fulfills God's promise to Ezekiel in the New Covenant of His Kingdom of the Church and the Sacrament of Christian Baptism. God promised a new and everlasting covenant of peace (Ezek 37:26-28; also see Jer 31:31; 32:40; 50:5; Lk 22:20; Heb 13:20). The Church acknowledges the fulfillment of Ezekiel's vision in Jesus's Resurrection from the dead (Mt 28:5-6; Mk 16:6; Lk 24:6; Acts 2:32; 3:15, 26; 4:10; etc.) and in the miracle of Pentecost Sunday fifty days later in the birth of the "new Israel" that is the New Covenant Church, the earthly Kingdom of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:14-15; Acts 2:1-4; CCC 877).
The Fathers of the Church saw Jesus's 120 disciples praying in the Upper Room on Pentecost Sunday in AD 30 as representing the "dry bones" or "corpses" of the Old Covenant people in Ezekiel's vision. Under the Sinai Covenant, the covenant people did not possess the promises of resurrection, eternal salvation, or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Instead, they were reborn on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon each disciple, breathed new life into them, and baptized them with God's Spirit. Their rebirth through the action of God's Spirit made them citizens of Jesus's Kingdom of Heaven on earth and candidates for citizenship in the Promised Land of Heaven. The Universal (Catholic) Church has the mission to gather God's children from the four corners of the earth and bring them to "new life" in Christ Jesus through the Sacrament of Baptism (Mk 16:15-16). The Church also promises her children the bodily resurrection Ezekiel saw in the Second Advent of Christ at the end of time. In that event, the dead will rise from their graves for the Final Judgment, and Jesus will claim His Bride, the Church. He will take her home to the Promised Land of the heavenly Jerusalem and the wedding feast of the Lamb prefigured in every Eucharistic celebration (1 Thes 4:16; Rev 19:6-9; 20:11-15).
Responsorial Psalm 130:1-6b, 7b-8 ~ The Lord is Merciful
The response is: "With the Lord there is mercy and fullness
of redemption."
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; 2 LORD, hear my
voice! Let your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication.
Response:
3 If you, O LORD, mark iniquities, LORD, who can stand? 4
But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered.
Response:
5 I trust in the LORD; my soul trusts in his word. 6b More
than sentinels wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for the LORD.
Response:
7b For with the LORD is kindness [hesed = faithful,
covenant love] and with him is plenteous redemption; 8 and he will redeem
Israel from all their iniquities.
Response:
Forgiveness is the theme of Psalms 130. This Psalm is one of the "Songs of Ascent" that pilgrims sang on their journey up to the Temple of Yahweh on Mount Moriah in the holy city of Jerusalem. It is also the sixth of the seven penitential psalms of the Christian liturgical tradition, expressing a desire for repentance and conversion (see Ps 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 147).
With a penitent heart, the psalmist cries out to the Lord. "Out of the depths" in verse 1 could refer to death (Ps 18:4; 69:2), or it could be a reference to the depths of the human conscience. When we pray, we should not approach God from the heights of our pride but from the depths of a humble and contrite heart. As Jesus told His disciples, "for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted" (Lk 18:14). Humility is the foundation of prayer.
After crying out to God, the psalmist acknowledges that every human is a sinner, and when God forgives sin, He demonstrates His greatness to humanity (verses 3-4). Next, the psalmist praises God's goodness and expresses his complete trust in His mercy (verses 5-6). He has faith that God is faithful to His word (verse 5) and is as confident in God's forgiveness as the night watchman has confidence that the dawn will come (verse 6b). In verse 7B, the reason for his hope is because of God's kindness (hesed = faithful, covenant love), and with him is plenteous redemption that will be extended to His covenant people, for He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities (verses 7-8).
The First Advent of Christ fulfills each of the seven Penitential Psalms. Jesus's name in Hebrew, Yahshua, means "God is salvation." It is a name that carries the promise that God will redeem His people from their sins (Mt 1:21; Lk 1:68). The Church encourages the faithful to pray a penitential psalm (Ps 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 147) before the Liturgy of the Mass to express trust in Christ the Redeemer. Consider praying one of the penitential psalms before Mass, as the faithful are kneeling in prayer in preparation for the beginning of the liturgical celebration and the Penitential Rite, to express the need for spiritual purification before approaching the altar to receive Christ in the Eucharist.
The Second Reading Romans 8:8-11 ~ Live by the Spirit
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you
are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the
Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does
not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead
because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit
of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised
Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit
dwelling in you.
In Romans 8:1-13, St. Paul wrote to the Christian community in Rome that Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to live according to the Spirit of God. Then, in Romans 8:9, St. Paul made the powerful statement: But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Paul's point was that only those reborn in the Spirit of God through the Sacrament of Baptism could genuinely belong to God and have the right to be called children in His family (Jn 3:3, 5).
In verse 10, Paul wrote that even with Christ living within us, the body is dead, referring to our physical bodies (see Eph 2:1-6). The reality is that every day we are alive in our physical bodies is another step toward physical death. No matter what we "invest" in our earthly bodies, it is a short-term investment. Because of the effects of sin, the human body is doomed to physical death and can become an instrument of spiritual death. Yet, through the regenerative waters of baptism, we are alive in the spirit of Christ. He justifies (makes righteous in the sight of God) the believer who can look forward to a final resurrection at the end of time when receiving an imperishable body.
In verse 11, Paul wrote that living in the spirit of Christ causes Christians to look forward to being alive in a way that makes the present reality of life in the flesh a pale counterfeit kind of living. Living in the Spirit is a long-term investment that will reap enormous benefits because God stands behind that investment.
The Gospel of John 11:1-45 ~ The Resurrection of Lazarus
1 Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of
Mary, and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with
perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who
was ill. 3 So the sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying, "Master, the
one you love is ill." 4 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." 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he
heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. 7 Then
after this, he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea." 8 The
disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you
want to go back there?" 9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in a day?
If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of
this world. 10 But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not
in him." 11 He said this and then told them, "Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but
I am going to awaken him." 12 So the disciples said to him, "Master if he is asleep,
he will be saved." 13 But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought
that he meant ordinary sleep. 14 So then Jesus said to them clearly, "Lazarus
has died. 15 And I am glad for you that I was not there that you may believe. Let
us go to him." 16 So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let
us also go to die with him." 17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had
already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only
about two miles away. 19 And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to
comfort them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, "Lord if
you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that
whatever you ask of God, God will give you." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your
brother will rise." 24 Martha said to him, "I know he will rise, in the resurrection
on the last day." 25 Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 26 and everyone who lives
and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 27 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." 28 When she had said this, she went and
called her sister Mary secretly, saying, "The teacher is here and is asking for
you." 29 As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 For
Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met
him. 31 So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary
get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to
the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she
fell at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would
not have died." 33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with
her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, 34 "Where have
you laid him?" They said to him, "Sir, come and see." 35 And Jesus wept. 36 So
the Jews said, "See how he loved him." 37 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?" 38 So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a
cave, and a stone lay across it. 39 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." 40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if
you believe you will see the glory of God?" 41 So they took away the stone. And
Jesus raised his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you for hearing me. 42 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." 43 And when he had said this, he cried out in a
loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44 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."45 Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and
seen what he had done began to believe in him.
Jesus's friends, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and Simon the (former) Leper, lived in the village of Bethany on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. Bethany was about two Roman miles from Jerusalem (Jn 11:18) or approximately four modern miles from the current city of Jerusalem. Scholars debate the Hebrew meaning of the place name Bethany. Some scholars maintain that the name means "place" or "house of grace" (bet means "place or house" while heni is from the root hen, meaning "grace." Other scholars believe the name comes from the Hebrew word anya, meaning "affliction" and, therefore, means "place or house of affliction" (Anchor Bible: Gospel According to John, page 422). However, when Christ was present, this village was indeed a "place of grace." The story of raising Lazarus from death is unique to St. John's Gospel and is the sixth of Jesus's public "signs" recorded in the Gospel of John. St. John presents the resurrection of Lazarus as a historically accurate event that took place in the village of Bethany on the Mount of Olives sometime between December and March of AD 30.
Lazarus's name in Hebrew is La'zar, the shortened form of Eleazar, which means "God helps" (Anchor Bible: The Gospel According to John, page 422). The Synoptic Gospels shed light on the family's special relationship with Jesus. The Gospel of Luke records an earlier visit, probably in the second year of Jesus's ministry (Luke 10:38-42). Several months after Lazarus's resurrection, Jesus stopped with His disciples to have a Sabbath meal with this family the day before He entered Jerusalem on what we call "Palm" or "Passion Sunday" (Jn 12:1-12). He also dined in Bethany one final time during Wednesday of Passion Week at the home of His friend Simon the former Leper, where the family of Lazarus may have been present (Mt 26:6-12 and Mk 14:3-8). Today the town is called El Azareyeh, derived from the name of Jesus's dear friend, Lazarus.
Notice in verses 1-3 that St. John identified Lazarus by his sisters. The reason may be because he assumed his audience was familiar with the sisters from the Gospel of Luke that mentioned Mary and Martha but not their brother (Lk 10:38-42). In verse 3, John also mentioned an event that would occur in 12:1-8 when Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus's feet and then tried them with her hair (Jn 12:3). It is unlikely that John was referring to the sinful woman who wiped her tears from Jesus's feet and then anointed them in Luke 7:37. Mary of Bethany has always been a symbol of virtue in the Church. The Church Fathers did not associate her with the sinful woman in St. Luke's Gospel.
3 So the sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying,
"Master, the one you love is ill." 4 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."
There is a double-meaning wordplay concerning death and
glorification. The miracle of resurrecting Lazarus (Jn 11:4) would glorify
Jesus, but it would also enrage the Jewish authorities to the point that it would
bring about Jesus's death (Jn 11:46-54) through which, He would "be glorified."
Jesus's statement concerning the news of Lazarus' illness, "This illness is not to end in death," seems at first glance to be ambiguous. Lazarus did indeed die, but Jesus was foretelling raising Lazarus from death, which will be another "sign" of His divine authority. A Biblical "sign" always points beyond the miracle performed. There are two "deaths," physical and spiritual death that is eternal. The reason Lazarus's sickness would not end in death was that Jesus would give his physical life as a "sign" of eternal life. The miracle in resurrecting Lazarus will glorify Christ, not just because people will admire Him but because it will lead to another greater sign/miracle beyond Lazarus's resurrection. John makes the symbolic importance of the sixth sign clear from the beginning. Jesus told His disciples in John 9:3 that the affliction of the man born blind was "so that the works of God might be made visible through him." In John 11:4, we learn that Lazarus's serious illness was also for God's glory. But this glory will only be fully evident when the Son is Himself glorified in His death, burial, and resurrection, which is the seventh "sign."
5 Now Jesus loved Martha
and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for
two days in the place where he was. 7 Then after this, he said to his
disciples, "Let us go back to Judea." 8 The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the
Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?"
When the news of Lazarus's illness reached Jesus, He and His
disciples were on the eastern side of the Jordan River in the area known as
Perea (Jn 10:40). Jesus and His disciples withdrew from Judea to the region of
Perea after Jesus's discourse at the Feast of Dedication (Chanukah/Hanukkah)
when the authorities became determined to kill him (see Jn 10:39 and 11:8).
The Roman-supported ruler of Perea and Galilee was Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, and the man who condemned John the Baptist to death. John's Gospel seems to indicate that Jesus's ministry in the heavily Gentile-populated Perea extended three months from the end of the Feast of Dedication in December AD 29 to the week preceding Jesus's last Passover in the spring of AD 30. The territory of Perea on the far side of the Jordan River (also known as the Transjordan) was where John the Baptist baptized Jesus (Jn 1:28), and large crowds from that area followed Jesus (Mt 4:25).
6 So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days
in the place where he was.
The two-day delay meant that Jesus and the disciples began
their journey on the third day after receiving the message. It took a day for word
of Lazarus's illness to reach Jesus, and then there were the two days that
Jesus remained across the Jordan before leaving, plus the day's journey to
Bethany that accounts for the four days mentioned in verse 17. Starting for
Bethany on the third day emphasizes "three" as the number that indicates
importance and theological significance in Sacred Scripture.
9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in a day? If
one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of
this world. 10 But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is
not in him.
Romans counted the hours of the day from midnight (we keep
Roman time). However, for the Jews, the day began at sundown, with the night
divided into four watches of twelve hours and the daylight hours divided into
twelve hours. John's Gospel, written for a Roman culture audience in Asia
Minor, uses Roman time.
Speaking of the sun, Jesus was not referring to its path in the sky, dividing the day into twelve seasonal hours of daylight. He was speaking on a theological level related to His statement in John 9:4-5 when He said: "We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (emphasis added). Jesus is the true light. So long as the disciples follow Him, they will not stumble in "darkness" or get lost. The "darkness" will not come until the appointed "hour of darkness" is determined by God the Father for His Son's sacrificial death and resurrection. Until that time, it is a time of "light," and the twelve men chosen by Jesus as the spiritual fathers of the New Covenant Church can walk with Him in safety.
10 But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light
is not in him.
Except for the disciple identified by the Church Fathers as
the Apostle John Zebedee, the other Apostles will all "stumble" at the "hour of
darkness" when Jesus is arrested and crucified. Only "the beloved disciple," Jesus's
mother, and some of the women disciples will stand by Him at the cross
(see Mt 27:45; Mk 15:33;
Lk 23:44).
11 He said this, and then told them, "Our friend Lazarus
is asleep, but I am going to awaken him." 12 So the disciples said to him,
"Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved." 13 But Jesus was talking about
his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. 14 So then Jesus
said to them clearly, "Lazarus has died. 15 And I am glad for you that I was
not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him." 16 So Thomas, called
Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go to die with him."
Jesus uses the word "sleep" to express the death of Lazarus.
In Hebrew and Greek culture, "to sleep" could be a euphemism for someone's death,
yet the disciples missed His meaning. In their culture, "to sleep" forever was
death, but Jesus's expression "to fall asleep" is especially fitting for the
death of a believer in Christ. A Christian must face physical death, but it is
only a "sleep" because the Christian has the hope of "awaking" to eternal life.
Jesus told the disciples that He was glad for their sake that Lazarus died.
The significance of their friend Lazarus's death included strengthening their
faith through the miracle of Lazarus's return to life. It is a strengthening of
faith they will all need to recall in about two months when their faith is
severely put to the test.
Then Thomas, known as the Twin, said "Let us also go to
die with him."
The Greek word for "twin" is didymos, often used as a
proper name in Greek culture. The word for "twin" in Hebrew and Aramaic is teoma,
and although there is not much evidence that it was a personal name, it may
account for our English rendering of this disciple's name as "Thomas." The
literal translation is "Thomas, called Didymus." In all the lists of the
twelve Apostles, he is always called Thomas and never Didymus. John, however,
who mentions Thomas more than any other Gospel writer, always identified him as
"Thomas, called Didymus"
(see Jn 20:24 and 21:2).
There is irony as well as a prophetic aspect to Thomas' declaration:
17 When Jesus arrived, he
found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany
was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. 19 And many of the Jews had
come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. 20 When Martha
heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home.
The detail that Lazarus was dead for four days is
significant, making it clear that Lazarus was indeed deceased. According to the
cultural traditions of the Jews, they believed that the soul hovered near the
body for three days, but after that time, there was no hope of resuscitation,
and decay would begin (Anchor Bible: Gospel According to John, Brown,
424).
many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort
them about their brother.
It was the custom then and now to bury the dead as soon as
possible after death. For those who died a natural death like Lazarus from
illness, their families washed their bodies in preparation for burial, anointed
them with oils and herbs, and wrapped their bodies in burial cloths. However,
those who died violent deaths were not washed because their blood must
accompany them to the grave. Jesus's disciples did not wash Him after His violent
death. Instead, His disciples wrapped His body in a shroud, and the women
disciples brought spices and ointments for His body the day after the Sabbath
(Mt 27:59; Mk 15:45-16:1).
The ritual of mourning began following the burial. According
to the customs of 1st-century AD Judea, men and women walked
separately in the funeral procession. After the internment, the women returned
alone to begin the mourning, which customarily lasted for thirty days. This
ritual included loud wailing and dramatic expressions of grief.
21 Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my
brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask of
God, God will give you." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise." 24 Martha
said to him, "I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day."
Martha offered a mild reproach followed by a statement of
faith in Jesus. She believed if Jesus had been by her brother's side before his
death that, Jesus could have healed him. Martha also expressed the belief that
whatever Jesus asked God, the Father would grant. But why didn't she ask Jesus
to raise Lazarus from death if she believed in the power of Jesus as the Son of
God? Some scholars suggest her faith was imperfect, but according to St.
Augustine, Martha demonstrated the perfect example of Christian faith. She
placed herself and her brother entirely in God's hands by expressing her
submission to His will. St. Augustine wrote: "she will not say, 'But now I ask
you to raise my brother to life again.' [...] all she said was, 'I know that you
can do it; if you will do it; it is for you to judge whether to do it, not for
me to presume'" (In Ioannis Evangelium, 49.13).
The picture of Martha and Mary in this episode complements their portrait in Luke 10:38-42. Martha rushed out to meet Jesus while Mary stayed at home. Martha was the woman of "action," while Mary was the quiet, reflective sister. Martha's response was similar to the Virgin Mary's instructions to the servants in John 2:5. In each case, there was the same indirect expressed hope that Jesus would act despite what appeared to be an impossible situation. Her response demonstrated a desire and a delicate suggestion but no direct request.
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise." Martha said
to him, "I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day."
Martha misunderstood Jesus's statement in verse 23. She
apparently thought Jesus was offering only words of comfort by affirming the
doctrine of the resurrection of the body in the Final Judgment as He had taught
and which the Pharisees advocated but not the Sadducees
(Mt 22:23; Mk 12:18;
Acts 23:8). Martha held the belief of a bodily resurrection, but Jesus would put her
faith concerning a bodily resurrection in a radically new context in the next
verse. The Old Testament Scriptures that refer to the promise a bodily
resurrection appear in Job 19:25-26; David's Toda [thanksgiving] psalms of
Psalm 16; Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2-3;
and 2 Maccabees Chapters 7 and 12 and 14.
25 Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 26 and everyone who lives
and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 27 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."
The additional phrase "and the Life" is omitted in
some MMS (ancient manuscripts) and included in others, but it does fit
well with the flow of ideas and statements that proceed and follow the phrase. Verse
25 is Jesus's fifth "I AM" statement using a predicate nominative. All the
previous "I AM" statements where Jesus uses a predicate nominative referenced
the themes of the resurrection and eternal life.
Jesus identified Himself with the significant and symbolic words: I AM, ego ami, which reminds us of Yahweh's revelation of Himself to Moses three times as I AM in Exodus 3:13-14. In John's Gospel, Jesus used these words twenty-six times and in seven metaphors.
| 1. 6:35 | "I AM the bread of life" |
| 2. 8:12 | "I AM the light of the world" |
| 3. 10:7 | "I AM the gate for the sheep" |
| 4. 10:11 | "I AM the good shepherd" |
| 5. 11:25 | "I AM the resurrection and the life" |
| 6. 14:6 | "I AM the way and the truth and the life" |
| 7. 15:1 | "I AM the true vine" |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2003 | |
St. John will also record four "I AM" statements in which Jesus will not use a predicate nominative: John 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19.
The significance of Jesus's statement in light of Martha's previous understanding is that the life Jesus gives is a present reality and not just a future promise! There are two main ideas:
27 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."
Martha of Bethany is an example of a model Christian. She
responds in faith, love, and obedience to Jesus's teachings in her profession
of faith in Him. Her statement in verse 27 is one of the strongest declarations
of Jesus as the Messiah and a profession of faith found in the New Testament.
It has the force of Peter's confession of faith in Jesus expressed in
Matthew 16:16 and John 6:69. The New Jerusalem Bible translates her response to
Jesus as: "Yes, Lord," she said, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son
of God, the one who was to come into this world." Other translations read: "Yes,
Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into
the world" (RSV Catholic Edition).
The word "I believe" in the Greek text is pieteuo. Martha used the same word to express her belief that St. Peter used in his profession of faith in John 6:69. The Greek word pieteuo is the root of the word epistemology, which is the philosophical analysis of "how we know." Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), in his analysis of Peter's confession of faith in John 6:69, wisely translated pieteuo as "I have come to know," which expresses the process of discovery and the growth of faith and trust in Jesus in one's journey toward salvation (The Apostles, 51).
John 11:28-44 ~ The Sixth
Sign: The Resurrection of Lazarus
John 11:28-31~ When she had said this, she went and
called her sister Mary secretly, saying, "The teacher is here and is asking for
you." 29 As soon as she heard this, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 For
Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still where Martha had met
him. 31 So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary
get up quickly and go out, they followed her, presuming that she was going to
the tomb to weep there.
The word "teacher" in verse 28 also translates as "master" (Anchor
Bible: The Gospel According to John, page 425). Jesus remained outside the
town. Martha's cautious whispering may indicate the element of danger mentioned
in verse 8.
32 When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she
fell at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would
not have died." 33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with
her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, 34 "Where have
you laid him?" They said to him, "Sir, come and see." 35 And Jesus wept. 36 So
the Jews said, "See how he loved him."
As soon as Mary saw Jesus, she fell prostrate at His feet. Religious
art always pictures Mary of Bethany at Jesus's feet. Both sisters are examples
of the model Christian. Mary, like her sister, also mildly reproached Jesus
with the words: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
Jesus's response has caused so much debate among Biblical scholars. In verses
33 and 38, Jesus exhibited a strong display of emotion. Scholars have found the
Greek in these passages difficult to translate since the Greek seems to be based
on two Semitic idioms that express deep, internal emotion. The debate is
whether Jesus expressed sorrow or anger as in this translation.
In the commentaries of many of the early Church Fathers, who were articulate in both speaking and writing in Greek and perhaps more familiar with the Semitic idioms, understood this passage in the sense of Jesus expressing extreme anger rather than sorrow. In his commentary on the Gospel of John, Fr. Raymond Brown commented on the Church Fathers' interpretation. He wrote: "While it does not seem that Jesus would have been angry at the afflicted, he may very well have been angry at their illness and handicaps which were looked on as manifestations of Satan's kingdom of evil. [...]. Turning to the passage in John, we find that the Greek Fathers understood it in the sense of getting angry" (The Gospel According to John, page 426).
We can understand Jesus's sorrowful response to the pain and suffering of His friends, but what are the reasons for which He might be responding in anger? It is unlikely that He was directing anger at Mary's mild reproach. She did not understand that the reason for her brother's death was the glorification of God through the miracle of her brother's resurrection. Nor was her weeping an indication of a lack of faith since Jesus Himself cried. A better explanation may be that He was angry because, once again, He was face to face with the realm of Satan and the sin that brings suffering and death, manifestations of Satan's evil influence over creation and humanity.
Saint John Chrysostom (347-407) suggested that Jesus had the same mixture of emotions He felt in the Garden of Gethsemane (see Mt 26:36-37; Mk 14:33-34; Lk 22:44). At Gethsemane, the imminence of His suffering and death, coupled with the climax of His struggle with Satan, caused Jesus great emotional distress (Homilies on the Gospel of John, 63.2). Whether His emotion was anger, grief, or a combination of both, this passage allows us to reflect on the depth of Jesus's human feelings. It reminds us that He was both human and divine; therefore, Jesus experienced all the depths of emotion we feel. The Navarre Commentary suggests if Jesus could be moved to tears over the temporary, physical death of a friend and believer, what emotion must He feel over the spiritual death of the sinner who has brought about his own eternal condemnation? St. Augustine wrote: "Christ wept; let man also weep for himself. For why did Christ weep, but to teach men to weep" (St. Augustine, The Gospel of John, 49, 19).
37 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?" 38 So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a
stone lay across it. 39 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."
The crowd of mourners surrounding Mary and Jesus did not doubt
the reality of Jesus's miracle in healing the man born blind (see Jn 9:1-41). Instead,
theirs was a natural question: Since Jesus had performed such incredible
miracles for strangers, why didn't He heal His friend?
38 So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
Fr. Raymond Brown, in his commentary, translated this verse:
With this again arousing his emotions, Jesus came to the tomb (The
Gospel According to John, page 421). The Navarre Commentary renders
this verse: Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb (page 157).
This verse uses the Greek verb embrimasthai, meaning "moved with
deepest emotion," the same verb used in verse 33.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Lazarus's burial was not in a public cemetery but in a cave,
the tomb of a wealthy man. The custom was to bury the poor in common graves. The
rock-hewn sepulchers had an antechamber and an inner or lower part of the
chamber where the family laid the bodies in niches in a recumbent position. Approximately
a year after the burial, the family collected the bones and placed them in a
stone ossuary or bone box. According to the Jewish Talmud, the burial
niches were usually six feet long, nine feet wide, and ten feet high. They
sealed the entrance to the burial cave with a large round stone rolled in front
of the opening in a channel specially cut for it or sealed the opening with a
plug-like stone (Ancient Israel, page 280). The fact that this family
could afford a cave burial indicates that Lazarus's family was neither poor nor
destitute. Jesus's disciples would also use a cave burial for His body that was
the tomb of a wealthy disciple, a member of the Sanhedrin named Joseph of
Arimathea (Mt 27:57-60;
Mk 15:43-46; Lk 23:50-54;
Jn 19:38-42).
Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him, "Lord, by now
there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days."
When Jesus ordered the stone removed, Martha made a very
practical observation. It was now the fourth day, and corruption had
begun. Decaying flesh has a strong and repulsive odor; the practical Martha told
Jesus her brother's corpse would stink!
John 11:40-45 ~ Jesus calls Lazarus out of
the Tomb
40 Jesus
said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of
God?" 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
"Father, I thank you for hearing me. 42 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." 43 And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come
out!" 44 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."
45 Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to
believe in him.
Jesus offered a prayer with His eyes opened and raised to heaven, as is the Jewish custom (see Mt 14:19; Mk 6:41; Lk 9:16; 18:13; Jn 17:1). Jesus began His prayer by addressing God the Father as "Abba," which was Jesus's distinctive but unusual way of addressing God in prayer. No Jew of His generation or previous generations would have addressed Yahweh in this informal manner. Ab is the Hebrew and Aramaic word for "father," while abba is the affectionate address of a little child. In Romans 8:15, St. Paul wrote: For what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, Abba, Father! And in Galatians 4:6-7, St. Paul also wrote: As you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son crying, 'Abba, Father'; and so you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir, by God's own act. Jesus's loving and intimate address to God the Father has, through our baptism and resurrection in Christ, enabled us to go to our "Abba" in the same intimate and affectionate way that a little child goes to the embrace of a loving "daddy."
he cried out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"
Significantly, Jesus called Lazarus by name. Although
dead, Lazarus had not lost his identity. Death does not end existence but
transforms existence to another plane, which is why Jesus stated in
Matthew 22:32 and Luke 20:28
that God is not God of the dead but of the living, for to him, all are alive.
The dead man came out
In this sixth sign, Jesus gave back physical life to Lazarus
as a sign of His power to give eternal life. It was also a promise that on "The
Last Day," He would bodily raise the dead! In John 5:28-30, Jesus spoke of a sign
concerning the Final Judgment, which this sixth sign prefigures. Jesus said,
"for the hour is coming when the dead will leave their graves at the sound of
his voice: Those who did good will come forth to life, and those who did evil
will come forth to judgment."
The raising of Lazarus is the third resurrection miracle in the Gospels:
The chief difference between the Old Testament resurrection miracles in 1 Kings 17:17-24, 2 Kings 4:32-37, and the Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jairus's daughter and the widow of Nain's son compared to Jesus's miracle with Lazarus is the length of time Lazarus was dead. The other resurrections occurred immediately after death. It was at least four days (verses 17 and 39) since Lazarus died, and his body had begun to decay. Jesus's resurrection from His tomb was unlike Lazarus's resurrection from the grave or His other resurrection miracles. After Jesus resurrected them, Lazarus and the others lived out the normal span of their lives and then physically died again. But Jesus would never die again after His Resurrection! He has conquered sin and death! In Romans 6:9-10, St. Paul wrote: We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will never die again. Death has no power over him anymore. For by dying, he is dead to sin once and for all, and now the life that he lives is life with God (NJB).
Biblical scholar and Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430), saw the resurrection of Lazarus as a sign of the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Sacrament of Penance). In Christian art found in the catacombs in Rome dating from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries, there are over 150 representations of the raising of Lazarus, symbolizing the gift of the life of grace, which comes through the priest in this Sacrament. St. Augustine gave a beautiful analogy comparing Lazarus coming alive out of the dark tomb to the repentant believer through confession who "comes forth" from the darkness of sin and into the light of grace. He wrote: "For what does come forth mean if not emerging from what is hidden, to be made manifest. But for you to confess is God's doing; he calls you with an urgent voice by an extraordinary grace. And just as the dead man came out still bound, so you go to confession still guilty. In order that his sins be loosed, the Lord said this to his ministers: 'Unbind him and let him go.' What you will loose on earth will be loosed also in heaven" (The Gospel of John, 49.24, referring at the end to Jesus's command giving authority to His ministers to bind and loose sins in Jn 20:22-23).
Now many of the Jews who
had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
Have you seen, and do you believe? Are you like Martha,
Mary, and their friends who believed in Jesus and came into His "Light,"
embracing His promise of "new life"? Or are you like the chief priests, scribes,
and Pharisees who saw but refused to believe and remained in darkness? "Now is
the day of (your) salvation" (2 Cor 6:2), and the Sacrament of Reconciliation
is the way to begin to revive and reclaim your "new life" in the Spirit.
Catechism References (* indicated Scripture quoted or
paraphrased in the citation):
Ezekiel 37:12-14 (CCC 715*);
37:10 (CCC 703*)
Romans 8:9 (CCC 693); 8:11 (CCC 632, 658*, 693)
John 11 (CCC 994*); 11:24 (CCC 993*, 1001); 11:25 (CCC 994); 11:27 (CCC 439*); 11:28 (CCC 581*); 11:34 (CCC 472*); 11:39 (CCC 627*); 11:41-42 (CCC 2604*); 11:44 (CCC 640*)
Bodily resurrection at the end of time: (CCC 366, 997, 998*, 999*, 1005*)
The progressive revelation of resurrection (CCC 992*, 993*, 994*, 995*, 996*)
Raisings are a messianic sign prefiguring Christ's Resurrection (CCC 549*, 640*, 646*)
The prayer of Jesus before the raising of Lazarus (CCC 2603*, 2604*)
Our present experience of resurrection (CCC 1002*, 1003*, 1004*)
The Eucharist and the Resurrection (CCC 1402, 1403*, 1404, 1405*, 1524*)
The resurrection of the body (CCC 989*, 990*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2014; revised 2023 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.