Fifth Sunday of Lent

March 9, 2008

Homily for the Anglican Usage Mass

of the

St. Thomas More Society

celebrated at

St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church , 1013 Wood Street

Scranton, PA

John 11:1-45

            In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen

            As I read today’s Gospel, I was reminded of a film Mel Gibson made while still a young man.  The film was “Galipoli”, and it told the story of an Australian farm boy attracted to the glories of war.  He desires to make a name for himself fighting to defend the British Empire; so he volunteers to fight in a war raging halfway around the world.  The reality, he soon discovers, is far different than his dreams of glory, and when he gets to the front he finds out that the men in charge are idiots who do not care whether he lives or dies.  Soon he doesn’t care either, and the movie ends with his senseless death at the hands of a callous Turkish machine gunner.

            In our Gospel today, the apostle Thomas exhibits the traits found in that Australian farm boy who died on the beach at Galipoli.  When Jesus told his disciples that He would return to Judea in order to minister to Lazarus, the disciples objected.  They noted that many among the Jewish leadership desired to kill him, and they reasoned that Jesus would want to avoid people who wished He were dead and who were actively plotting to make sure Jesus died a young man.

            But not all objected.  Thomas said to the other disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”  Thomas here fulfills the role of the glory seeker and demonstrates that he does not take dying seriously enough.

            Jesus made clear that He was going to Judea to raise Lazarus from the dead, to perform a sign in order that His disciples will believe that He is indeed the Son of God.  But Thomas remains focused on the impending conflict, rather than on Jesus’ stated purpose to overcome death.  Here is Jesus telling His disciples that He has power over death, and Thomas’s response is a ready willingness to throw away his life.  His comment demonstrates that he lacks understanding of how painful death is, the agony that the loss of just one life causes in those who love the departed.  Thomas’ eagerness to die shows that he does not really appreciate life.  He doe not see that the only reason Jesus is willing to lose his life is to conquer death.

            Just as Thomas does not take death seriously enough, Martha and Mary assign death too much power.  The intensity of their mourning betrays their assurance that their brother will not be restored to them, that Jesus is powerless in the face of a man who has been dead for four days.  Moreover, both Martha and Mary greet our Lord with the same wistful plea, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Though Martha confesses her belief in the resurrection of the dead at the Last Day, she and Mary clearly do not expect to see Lazarus alive until that time.

            Mary’s and Martha’s talk about Lazarus as if he won’t be restored to them indicates they do not understand the extent of Jesus’ power over death.  Whereas Thomas should have been less eager to die, Martha and Mary should have been less eager to cry.  The sisters even go so far as to argue with Jesus when He orders the stone to be rolled away from the entrance to the tomb.  Unlike Thomas, they understand that death is serious, but they do not understand that nothing is stronger than Jesus.  Just as Thomas’ flippancy is evidence of his lack of faith, the sisters’ despair shows that their faith must be stronger, too.

            Between these extremes of carelessness and despair stands the figure of Jesus.  On the one hand, He communicates the pain of death as He weeps before the tomb of his friend.  In the tears of Jesus, the Son of God, we see that death is not God’s intent for us, that death is a detour away from the path God laid out for us at creation.  Jesus’ tears are evidence that the death we choose to suffer, the death we so often choose to inflict, causes Him who created us intense pain.  Today’s Gospel shows us that Jesus loves us so much.  His tears, after all, cause those who stand about Him to remark, “See how he loved him” (John11:36).  We can be certain that Jesus loves each of us as intensely as He loved Lazarus.  This pain and this love are a rebuke to anyone who, like Thomas, is willing to die for anything less than the preservation of life.

            On the other hand, Jesus communicates that the pain of death, as intense as it feels, is not the end for those who have confidence in Him.  If we are not tempted to treat death as if it were nothing, we are likely tempted to treat it as if it has the last say.  With Martha and Mary, we struggle to believe that Jesus actually has the power to restore to life what He had first created.  We imagine that Jesus is as weak as we are, that just as we are incapable of raising the dead to life, se He must be, also.  So Jesus decided to perform His most astounding miracle in front of all His disciples and scores of mourners, that there could be no doubt about the divine power manifested in Him.  We cannot thus doubt who He is.  We must then make a decision whether we will oppose Him or follow Him.

            In the end, the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is not primarily about Thomas, Martha and Mary, or even Lazarus himself.  It is a story about Jesus and His willingness to lay down His life that others might live.  That trip to Judea did not end up costing Him His life, but His trip to Jerusalem would.  In any case, He undertook both trips in order to raise up those held captive by our principle enemy, death.  And as we celebrate on Easter Sunday, just as death could not hold Lazarus down, so Jesus’ Passion was no match for the power of God’s life within Him.

            With this confidence we see the approach we should take to the death each of us must eventually face.  Because life is sacred, we must take death seriously and feel with Jesus the pain caused by the passing of God’s children. We must remember Jesus’ tears as we strive to preserve our own lives.  Yet we must also understand that life is worth dying for.  If like Jesus, our sacrifice will issue in life for other people, our own death is a risk worth taking.  For we are able to confess with Martha that death does not have the last say, that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, that he who believes in Jesus, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in Him shall never die.  We can make the sacrifice because we do not despair and we are free to die that others might live.  To choose anything less is to decide to follow someone less powerful than Jesus.  To choose anything less is to decide not to requite the love Jesus has already shown He has for each of His children.