#Commentary on bible story of lazarus free

We do know he was in the tomb, dead, for four days. We don’t know the cause of Lazarus’s death. How does this story speak to us in our present circumstances? ‘Lazarus, come out!’ (11:43)

#Commentary on bible story of lazarus free

Jesus tells the onlookers to unbind Lazarus and let him go free from the captivity of death. At Jesus’s word, still bound by his burial cloths, Lazarus comes out. On reaching Lazarus’s tomb, despite Martha’s protests that after four days the smell of Lazarus’s body will be overwhelming, Jesus commands the stone be removed and calls to Lazarus to come out of the tomb. Mary’s and the mourners’ reactions greatly distress Jesus he bursts into tears. Mary uses almost identical words to Martha, but there is no affirmation of faith in Jesus. She seems to rebuke him: ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died’ (11:52). Hearing this, Mary and the mourners go to meet Jesus and, distraught with grief, Mary throws herself at Jesus’s feet, overcome by heartache and anger. Martha returns and tells Mary that Jesus is on his way. Mary is waiting at home with the mourners who have come to share her sorrow. When Jesus promises Lazarus will rise again, but makes no promise that it will be now rather than in the afterlife, Martha affirms her belief that Jesus is ‘the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world’ (11:27). Yet she says, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died, but even now I know that God will grant whatever you ask of him’ (11:21). She rushes to meet him and tells Jesus that Lazarus has died and has been in the tomb four days. On his way Jesus is met by Martha who has heard that he is coming. When Jesus finally decides to go to Bethany, the disciples urge caution because it is near Jerusalem, where there is a danger to Jesus’s life. Despite the disciples’ urging, Jesus does not rush to his side, but waits two days before heading for Bethany, the home of Lazarus and his two sisters, Martha and Mary.

Jesus hears that his friend Lazarus is ill. How can it speak to us in our current situation? It is the story of Jesus’s gift of life to his friend Lazarus, which is a powerful reading at any time, writes Brian Purfield, but these are not ordinary times. On the fifth Sunday of Lent in Year A, we hear the third of the Lenten narratives from John’s Gospel that have been used for centuries in preparation for the reception of the newly baptised at the Easter Vigil.