Scripture Reflections for the Fifth Sunday of Lent
Year A, Lectionary 34
How much are our lives consumed with death? Martha and Mary faced their brother Lazarus' death but they held on to God, Jesus, to live beyond their predicament. In doing so, Jesus the source of life gave them reason to continue living. Are we holding on to the source of life?
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Accompany • Baptism • Choice • Compassion • Creation • Cross • Death • Disciple • Discomfort • Encounter • Environment • Faith • Flesh • Friendship • Holy Spirit • Hope • Identity • Illness • Justice • Lazarus • Lent • Life • Martha • Patience • Peace • Prayer • Present • Reconciliation • Relationship • Resurrection • Silence • Suffering • Thomas • Wait • Weep • Wept •
“until the resurrection takes place at the end of time, we still in a sense live within the flesh and within this old world. So although we belong to Christ, we belong to the power of the Spirit in the new creation, we still have one foot in this world of sin and death in the flesh”
“God is the creator and giver of life. In this passage, God brings life and the community is asked to unbind. Healing requires participation, liberation, and communal courage.”
“We too are being called to participate in the liberation of others. For whom is Christ calling us to untie and let go?”
“Often times we think we need to do things for someone who is ill but in my experience just by being with someone who is ill, you bring both God's joy and peace”
“This gospel text today reminds us to trust and to believe that Jesus has the power over sickness, the power over meanness, of racism and sexism and all the things that divide our human family”
“Jesus's demonstration of his power over sin and death in the raising of Lazarus, to show that he has power over the grave, that he can raise Lazarus from the dead even after the tomb has been closed for four days...that is no barrier to Jesus's power to give him life”
“we should put ourselves in to Lazarus's place because one day we too will die...and yet that decomposition of our bodies, that experience of death, that experience of the tomb is no barrier to life, it's no barrier to the friendship of Christ”
“Sometimes we're in a safe place and Christ asks us to go right into the heart of darkness. Why? To bring life.”
“And when Jesus cries 'Lazarus, come out!' don't you know he's calling our names?”
“You get so comfortable in your world of sin that when you hear Christ calling you out you think to yourself: 'well, what's going to be better, do I stay in my little sin-filled comfort zone or do I hear the voice of Christ and follow him?'”
“You see, church is not a spectator sport. You see, church is about people coming together to build up the body of Christ.”
“In John’s gospel, resurrection is not only about life after death. It is also about being set free now, so that the life Christ gives can be lived, breathed, and shared.”
“So this story is not just the story of that man called Lazarus who lived in Bethany. It is a story of how God helped the afflicted. It is a story of how God helps us in our afflictions.”
“You always end up having to surrender, don't you? And that's very, very hard for us. It's hard for Jesus too. But he went before us in this new way to embrace even death.”
“The truth is that here and now Jesus is on the way to the tombs of the ones he calls beloved and he is asking us if we know the way and if we will go with him”
“Church, we have a God who is not just an 'on time God,' we have a God who's a 'right here God'”
“Maybe we also wonder as adults about what's to come and what it means to live into the fullness of life. In the meantime with our feet firmly planted and our eyes set on Easter, maybe we can begin to live into the mystery.”