The Fifth Sunday of Lent
(Passion Sunday)
9th March 2008
: 9:00am & 11:30am
Preacher: The Very Revd Andrew
Chan
I am the Resurrection
The Gospel Reading of today is
very long, through the actual ‘resurrection’ of Lazarus comes in only two verses,
43 and 44. All the rest of the story is to explain the deep meaning of the sign
performed by Jesus. This deed shows him as the Lord of life.
At the beginning of the story,
Jesus is informed that Lazarus his good friend is very ill, but instead of going
to cure him, Jesus remains where he is for two more days. It may be very
strange to us. Why Jesus impresses us that he wants to let him die. We may also
have wondered how, remember that in the absence of telephone at that time,
Martha knew that Jesus was coming. And while Martha went to look for Mary, what
did Jesus do? Why did he not follow her? Why did he wait for Mary to come? We
would not have behaved like that, certainly.
Meanwhile, Jesus’ response is
also strange to us. He says, ‘If anyone believes in me, even though he dies, he
will live and whoever lives and believes in me will never die’. But how can he
promise his disciples such a thing when we Christian die every day, just like
all other people? What does he really mean? And finally Jesus weeps over the
death of his friend. How can we explain this? Was he not aware that he was
about to raise him from the dead? Was he only pretending?
Well, before answering these
questions, let us first look at the message that this story has for us.
Actually, Jesus’ attitude and behaviour are meant to
be a lesson for the whole Christian community. What do we do when a dear one is
ill? We first look for home cures then we consult the doctors and when even
these can do nothing, we turn to religion, we pray to God, being sure that if
he loves us he will certainly come to our aid, and maybe even work a miracle
for us.
By letting Lazarus die, Jesus
is telling us that he has not come to prevent physical death. His task is not
to break up the natural course of the life of human being. This life has an
end, it cannot last for ever. The Christian religion is not competing with
those religious sects, that through ceremonies and
entreaties to ancestors or spirits, say that they can cure many diseases. Jesus
has not come to make this life eternal, but to give us another life that will
have no end. We find the exact meaning of all this in the central part of
today’s gospel, in the dialogue between Jesus and Martha.
Under the circumstances, Jesus
went to see Lazarus after four days he has died. At that time, many people
believed that in three days a person was not completely dead. It was only on
the fourth day that life finally left him. So when Jesus went to see Lazarus,
Martha complained that, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have
died.’ While Jesus answered, ‘Your brother will rise again.’,
she replied, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last
day. In the New Testament times, the
Well, it is the point that
Jesus introduces his new and extraordinary message :
whoever believes in me will never die. What is this? How can a person not die?
Some comparisons will aid the explanation. Imagine two twins in the womb of
their mother; but imagine that they can see, understand and speak to each other
during the nine months of pregnancy. They know only their small world and can’t
possibly imagine how life can be out of that place. They do not know that
people move about, work, travel by air, that there are animals and other
humans. The twins know only their type of life, the life which they experience.
After nine months the first twin is born. The other, still left in the womb of
his mother for a short while longer, might think : My
brother is dead, he is no more, he has disappeared, he has left me.’ And he
will begin to weep. But has his brother died? Certainly not! He has only a confined, and limited type of life for a fuller and much
better life.
Jesus says that a similar thing
will happen to a disciple of his who dies : the
disciple does not die at all, he is only born into a new life, and enters the
world of God to share in a life without limit and end. The divine life that the
Christian receives in Baptism cannot be seen, touched, physically tested. It
can only manifest itself once this material life, linked to the material world,
ends. This is why early Christians called the day of the death a ‘birthday’.
After listening to the words of Jesus, Martha utters a beautiful profession of
faith; she acknowledges that Jesus is the one who gives this new life : ‘Yes
Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who has to
come into this world.’
Therefore, we Christians can
affirm in the Creed that ‘we look for the resurrection of the dead’. A person
can never be a real Christian if he does not believe that death is another
birth. Nevertheless he / she is not indifferent,
that’s why Jesus weeps when a friend leaves him. He well knows that the friend
is not dead, that he is with God, but at the same time he is sad maybe since he
will be separated from his loved one, even if only for a limited period of
time. However, there is a more fundamental reason. Jesus was sad because the
people, even the ones he loved, could not understand him.
In fact, there are two ways of weeping : first is the desperate and noisy one, of those who
hold that death is the end of everything. The other is Jesus’ weeping at
Lazarus’ tomb. The gospel of today describes these two different ways of
weeping by using two different verbs. It says that Mary, Martha and the Jews
‘wept’ desperately’, while in the case of Jesus it states that tears streamed
down from his eyes. Christian weeping is this second kind, serene and
dignified. The loss of a dear one is painful, and difficult to bear. But we
would be selfish to keep all to ourselves the one we lose. It would be like
preventing a child from being born.
What we can read in the last
part of the story? That is Jesus ordering the removal of the stone of the tomb
that closes the opening of the tomb. That stone was meant to separate the world
of the living from the world of the dead. For those who believe in Christ this
separation no longer exists. After the resurrection of Jesus, death has been
conquered, and the barriers between this world and the world of God have been
removed.
This Sunday is the fifth Sunday
in Lent. It is also a very Sunday of Lent reminding of our risen life which
immediately comes after death. In fact, the season of Lent is for the catechumens
to prepare their hearts and spirit for the baptism on Easter. The teaching of
this Sunday exactly brings them to the climax of their instructions. Yet, these
instructions are also for us today. As they have now been made fully aware that
the day of their baptism is also the day of their resurrection, we should
affirm that we should die with Jesus on our crosses and risen with him
together. That is when we all shall receive the life that will never end.
I would like to answer a
question as my conclusion. Why didn’t Jesus enter
Yes, Jesus would like us to
come out with him to enjoy being in joy and peace, instead of being tied up by
our sorrow and sadness.