Photo: The Raising of Lazarus, 1630–1631, Rembrandt van Rijn (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles)
We seem to be moving through Lent at speed. We are at the fifth Sunday of Lent in a rapidly changing world. We celebrate the raising of Lazarus from the dead but face the spectre of universal death.
While we know that we will die, we would like it to be an orderly affair with support and time to prepare for it. The pan-epidemic of the coronavirus has brought death, possibly for many people, before our eyes on TV and social media. In a culture that prefers to ignore death and avoid it, today we confronted by it.
How does the gospel of St John speak to us in these present circumstances?
Jesus delays for days before travelling to the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus in Bethany. The gospel informs us that Bethany is only two miles from Jerusalem and the disciples are concerned for Jesus’ safety because his opposition were planning to kill him.
We can think of the cronavirus as gathering force and pace like Jesus’ enemies and of the danger it presents to people, not only the elderly but also the medical teams who are treating patients and putting their own lives in peril. We remember how some of the saints lost their lives helping the sick in epidemics that raged throughout Europe through the centuries. We think too of those medical personnel who have battled against the Ebola virus in West Africa which started in 2014 and ended in 2016 with the deaths of 11,000 people.
When he arrives at Bethany both Martha and Mary tell him plainly that Lazarus would not have died if he had come in time. This is a puzzle since in last week’s gospel he goes out of his way to heal the man born blind. Martha confronts him and in their exchange she believes in the resurrection as the Pharisees did but Jesus exclaims that HE IS the resurrection and challenges her to go a step further and believe in him to have the power to raise Lazarus from the dead. She believes.
The woman at the well, the man born blind and now Martha is challenged to go further and believe in him as the one who comes from God doing the Father’s will and giving eternal life to those who accept him.
It is a big step, they get there in stages. They have the time to become involved with the persona of Jesus and they believe him because they had met him and talked with him and because of how he presented himself, they believed his words.
The gospels in Lent lead us to consider ourselves and respond to the mercy and compassion that Jesus shows the people. The miracles are not an end in themselves but actions which call for an act of faith from us in Jesus because of who he is and what he says.
At this time of potential danger for many people, we are encouraged to look on Jesus as the one who is with us in danger. He holds life and death in his hands. We commit ourselves into his hands.
Columban Fr Gary Walker is currently living at the Columban house in Sandgate, Brisbane.
