HOMILY FOR FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT (A)

Fr Billy Swan

Dear friends. I took the picture above during a visit to Boston in the summer of 2019. It is a statue of Jesus in a church in the centre of the city. It shows him with his hand to his face, weeping, as he does in the Gospel today after the death of his friend Lazarus.

This statue was commissioned after the terrible events of 9/11 in 2001 and shows the compassion, sadness and solidarity of our Lord with everyone who suffers loss. It is a powerful sign that our human God did not protect himself from loss and grief. Nor did he save himself from death as those who taunted him on the cross, urged him to do. No. Jesus saved us, not from death but in death. This is the meaning of today’s powerful Gospel story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, that is put before us as we draw closer to the events of Holy Week.

I am always struck by the detail in this Gospel where Jesus is told about his friend being seriously ill but waited two more days to go and see Lazarus. Why didn’t he go straight away? Why didn’t he go on time so as to prevent Lazarus’ death? Even Martha suggested this for when Jesus eventually did arrive, she said to him: ‘If you had been here my brother would not have died’. So why then did Jesus wait and allow Lazarus to die? Because he wanted to show us that he is our Saviour who overcomes death even after it happens. That is why the story is one of hope for everyone.

In our world today, we too might ask where is God and why does he allow people to die, even after we pray they won’t? Why is God waiting to act like Jesus waited to act before he went to Lazarus? A full answer is impossible but maybe, just maybe we humans are being reminded that God is still the Lord of life, even when the life we know is gone. Lazarus was not saved from death but in death as we see with his resurrection. By rising him from the dead, Jesus anticipates his own death and resurrection that would follow shortly afterwards.

Friends, God hates death and everything associated with it. He hates the tombs we walk into and the ways of living that only bring sadness. That is why Jesus’ mission was to break the rock and smash the power of all that binds us, including that which frightens us most – death.

Everywhere in the Gospels, Jesus describes his mission as being about life. He claims that ‘I have come that you may have life and have it to the full’ (John 10:10). He describes himself as ‘the bread of life’ (John 6:35) and that ‘my words are spirit and they are life’ (John 6:63). John wrote his Gospel ‘so that believing you may have life in his name’ (John 20:31) and that ‘in him was the life of all’ (John 1:4). Then there is the raising of Jarius’ daughter (Matt. 9:18ff) and the raising of the son of the grieving widow (Luke 7:11ff). And here today, the raising of Lazarus is a moment for Jesus to exclaim: ‘I am the resurrection and the life’.

And yet Our Saviour and giver of life has a human heart that feels, that knows and understands our losses. In the Gospel this Sunday, Jesus seeks out his dead friend with the words ‘where have you put him? And then Jesus wept. God never stops looking for us and weeping for us no matter where we have gone and how lost we have become. He has come to us a Saviour. He has come to the world as Saviour. And a Saviour is what the world needs now more than ever. But He can only save us if we want him to and if we ask him to. He doesn’t impose. This is a key message for Lent, especially as the passion, death and resurrection of Christ are coming into view.

‘Lord Jesus Christ, you were sent into this world by the Father to save us from sin, death and everything that separates us from you. Save humanity in her time of need, especially those in most need of help and mercy. Give new life to those who have died. May your tears and ours cleanse our eyes to see your love for the world and the needs of those around us. Amen’.