We’ve come to the fifth Sunday in Lent. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week and our entry into Easter. It is time therefore for the beginning of our intensive preparation for the celebration of Easter. In our readings we hear of the Lord who opens graves, the indwelling Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead, and the raising of Lazarus. All three readings – from the prophet Ezekiel, from Paul’s letter to the Romans and from the Gospel of John – want to prepare us to celebrate Easter. And we need the preparation.
Now you might think it odd to say we need preparation, in fact, intense preparation in order to be able to celebrate Easter. But I think the Church is being a good pastor for us because we do tend to miss the point – much like the disciples in Jesus’ day. We miss the point of Easter. So, even though it’s two weeks away, the Church would have us begin to focus on Easter as the central feast of our Christian faith. In fact, every Sunday liturgy is supposed to recall us to this central feast of Easter.
In celebrating Easter we celebrate the feast of Paschal Mystery. The Paschal Mystery is the absolute core belief of Christians. It is our fundamental insight – our basic take on life. For us it is the very structure of life, the shape of all reality. Paschal Mystery says that all our dying – all our deaths of whatever kind – all our dying is leading us into deeper, fuller, richer life. Each day and every day we die to beget new life. Each day and every day we are dying into life. And all this is God’s doing. God takes our dying and shapes it into something life-giving.
That is the point of the story of Lazarus. Jesus takes the dead Lazarus and brings him into new life. And here’s the point: Lazarus is us! We are dead. Our fears kill us to the deep-down life that is within us – the life that yearns to surrender to life. Surrender is the wholehearted giving-over of oneself. In surrender the giver becomes the gift. And we fear surrender. We fear the poverty that comes of such generosity. Rather than surrender we suppress the generous life within us – making of ourselves tombs – dark, smelly enclosures – but oh so safe and secure.
Jesus yells into our tombs: Come out! Come out into life! Die to death and come into life! I am your resurrection and your new life!
The Irish playwright, William Butler Yeats, wrote a little play titled “Calvary”. In it he portrays Lazarus encountering Jesus on his way to the cross. But this is a Lazarus who feels no gratitude toward Jesus. He says to him: ‘Come out!’ you called; you dragged me to the light… And now… you travel towards the death I am denied. This Lazarus did not want to be raised from the dead. Life – the pulsing new life Jesus brings – that life was too much for him. He preferred to lie safe in his deadly solitude.
But Jesus insists on life. He insists we not abort the true life that is already within us. He insists we not resist our yearning to surrender ourselves over to life – as it graciously and unpredictably comes at us.
It is helpful when reading John’s gospel to be aware that he directs his questions primarily at us, his audience, and not simply at the bystanders in the story. So when Jesus asks Martha: Do you believe? Do you believe that everyone who lives and believes in me will never die?, that question is put squarely at us. Do we believe in the Paschal Mystery? Do we want Jesus-style resurrection and new life? We call it everlasting – eternal life. Are we prepared to celebrate Easter?
