From dust we came and to dust we shall return.

 Homily for 5^th Sunday of Lent

26^th March 2023

When Lent began, we were reminded that all of us would return to dust through the ashes the priest placed on our forehead. From dust we came and to dust we shall return. Since I have been ordained a deacon, I have had the honour of being with families who have lost a loved one. What many people find surprising is how on losing someone their emotions play havoc with them. For what seems to be no apparent reason tears can stream down our cheeks and a deep sobbing wells up from deep inside us. For many they are embarrassed, often saying this is not how they are normally, but they are also confused and surprised by their human response to the loss.

Jesus, in today’s gospel, is also overwhelmed with grief at the loss of his friend Lazarus. On hearing of the news that Lazarus was ill, Jesus did not immediately go to his aid. Instead, he waited two more days before telling his disciples they would go to Judaea. His friends were worried about him because the people there had tried to stone him. He also said Lazarus was resting, so surely, he would get well. But Jesus said Lazarus was dead.

On arriving in Bethany, both sisters separately raced to see him. Martha reproaches him first saying Lazarus would have lived if Jesus had been there with him, but knew whatever Jesus asked of his Father would be granted. However, when Mary came up to him, she was in tears, full of emotion, Jesus’s human nature also gripped him. She had thrown herself at his feet again challenging him for not having come sooner. Jesus loved both sisters and their brother, Lazarus as though they were his siblings, and the heartache he felt gripped him also. He wept with his own grief.

To many, this might be surprising because he is also God. Jesus knew the purpose behind his actions was to bring Lazarus back to life, because, as he told Martha, he is the resurrection and the life, if we believe though we might die we will live, and we will never die. When Jesus, still crying, reached the tomb he ordered the stone across the cave entrance be removed. Though there were protests because of the expected smell, Jesus reminded them that if they believed they would see God’s Glory. When Jesus spoke to his Father, he said what he said for the people around him to believe. When Lazarus came out, he had to be unbound and set free.

Though Lazarus was raised from the dead on this occasion, the bondage of this world still had a grip on him, meaning he could still physically die again. His spirit had simply been returned to his original body. Ezekiel had reminded the Israelites of how God could open their graves, how he could rebuild their bodies from their bones, sow sinews together fibre by fibre to reconstruct their whole physical body, and then breathe his Holy Spirit into them to give them life again.

What Paul reminds us of is that if our focus is purely on materialist things, we will not please God. Material things are here today and gone tomorrow, they decay and fall apart. It is through sin that our bodies become dead. If we want to belong to Jesus and receive the Spirit of Christ, our focus should be in the spiritual, and the Spirit of God will find a home in us. This way, no matter if our body is dead, the Spirit will keep us alive.

Lazarus’s body was not yet resurrected, because his body could still die through sin. The spirit of God had rekindled life back into him. At the final resurrection, we will rise again into an incorruptible body, full of the Holy Spirit.

Until then, we will still be susceptible to death, both of our loved ones and ourselves. We will still succumb to the well of grief that comes with mourning, but we should remember that our tears are also a form of cleansing, a way of releasing the pain bound up within us. A way of refreshing our whole being. Jesus, Our Lord, and Saviour, who held the wisdom of God, still within his human nature felt the anxiety of the loss of his beloved friend, Lazarus. As we come close to the end of Lent, we still have the opportunity to repent of any sin that may keep us from being close to Jesus, and we can be reassured that he knows our pain because of his own human experiences.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

• Likes
• Download6
• Share