Lent 5 A (2023)

In John’s gospel, the ‘giving of life’ to Lazarus

is the final sign of who Jesus is

before John’s account of Holy Week.

It is sign pointing to the revolution in our relationship with God

that is sealed in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Jesus’ ‘giving of life’ to Lazarus is a is a prophetic action, pointing to:

I am the resurrection and the life.

In the previous two weeks,

we heard of the Samaritan woman and the blind man,

who both knew little or nothing of Jesus

before their life-changing encounter.

In contrast, this week,

the person being brought to a deeper sense of who Jesus is,

already knows him well, counts him a friend,

looks after him, makes him at home,

and has a strong faith in the power of Jesus’ prayer –

in the power of God working through Jesus.

It is Martha.

Martha is sure that, had her friend Jesus been there,

his prayer would have brought Lazarus healing, and she says so.

In response, Jesus says to Martha

Your brother will rise again

and Martha responds with

I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.

It sounds like Jesus and Martha are agreeing,

but I don’t think they are really.

For, Martha doesn’t yet understand fully who Jesus is,

or what this means.

Martha believes in ‘the resurrection on the last day’.

Much of the Old Testament envisages either

no after-life at all, or

an after-life that is, at most, a shadow-world.

Belief in ‘resurrection on the last day’,  

only emerged firmly in the two centuries before Jesus

and it arose from confidence in God’s faithfulness and justice

towards those martyred for their Jewish observance.

At the time of Jesus, this belief was one of the dividing lines

between Sadducees and Pharisees:

Sadducees said there was no resurrection;

Pharisees said that the end of time brought bodily resurrection,

and, for the just, renewed life – ‘for the just’ is important.

St Paul who, before his conversion, was a devout Pharisee,

sees a hopelessness the Pharisees’ doctrine

– for who is ‘just’ before God.

A hopelessness that I think is there, as an undertone,

in Martha’s declared belief in ‘resurrection on the last day’.

Jesus invites Martha to make a radical reappraisal:

to deepen her sense of God’s mercy, forgiveness, and closeness.

He says:

I am the resurrection and the life; trust in me.

‘Trusting in Jesus’ is the completion and the fulness of life,

both now and after death.

He is God-with-us, raising us up, now and always.

Jesus offers Martha real hope –

hope flowing from wholehearted trust in him.

And Martha responds with a deep recognition of who Jesus is:

the Christ;

the Son of God;

the one who was to come into this world.

Her faith has grown.

As we prepare to renew our baptismal faith at Easter,

we listen to Jesus say to us:

I am the resurrection and the life. Put your trust in me.