22 March 2026 -- Fifth Sunday of Lent ‘A’
Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45
The Raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-45)
Two editorial levels can easily be distinguished in this passage from John’s Gospel. The original narrative was an account of the raising of Lazarus, the greatest of the miracles performed by Jesus. When John decided to insert this account at a crucial moment in Jesus’ life—that is, at the end of his ministry and the beginning of his passion—he transformed it. What now lies at the heart of the narrative is no longer the miracle itself, but rather Jesus’ dialogue with Martha.
At the heart of this dialogue lies Jesus’ revelatory words: “I am the resurrection and the life”, and also Martha’s reply (v. 27): “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who is to come into the world.”
This text helps us to understand the great richness and full diversity of the spiritual experience of the early Church. Each of the local Christian communities had its own way of living out and reliving its experience of Christ. In the Churches of the Matthew tradition, the memory of Jesus’ ministry centres on his relationship with his group of disciples, especially the twelve apostles. But this memory, in the Gospel of John, centres on Jesus’ relationship with a number of friends, especially Martha, Mary and Lazarus. They are his true disciples, and he is their teacher. Martha is the first to be mentioned. It is she who, after receiving the revelation and expressing her faith in Jesus’ word, goes to fetch Mary, just as Andrew and Philip had gone to fetch Peter and Nathanael. As Jesus’ much-loved “disciple”, it is she, Martha, who expresses, on behalf of all, the community’s messianic faith. Martha confesses her messianic faith, not in response to a miracle, but in response to Jesus’ revelation and his question: “Do you believe this?” Martha’s confession of faith in the Gospel of John parallels that of Peter (6:66–71), but it is a Christological confession in a fuller sense. As such, Martha’s confession carries the full significance of Peter’s confession at Caesarea and of Philip’s in the Synoptic Gospels. Thus, Martha represents the full apostolic faith of John’s community, just as Peter represents the full apostolic faith of Matthew’s community.
As such, Martha’s confession carries the full significance of Peter’s confession at Caesarea and of Philip’s in the Synoptic Gospels. Thus, Martha represents the full apostolic faith of John’s community, just as Peter represents the full apostolic faith of Matthew’s community.
If we wish to apply this text to our own situation, we must be both Martha, who confesses Christ, and Lazarus, who has been raised from the dead. Regarding this resurrection, we must note that John does not attempt to give us any information about Lazarus’s experience, either whilst he was dead or after his return to life... The only thing that matters is that he has come back to life.
The text from Ezekiel can help us apply this story to our own lives: “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live again...” We experience death in many ways throughout our lives. The way Lazarus emerges from the tomb is a symbolic expression of this: “his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a shroud”. And what does Jesus say: “Unbind him and let him go”.
There is a beautiful poem by the English poet C.S. Lewis entitled ‘Till We Have Faces’... In other words, until we have a face, we cannot enter into a relationship with God... or with others. Perhaps we have, to some extent, lost the sense of our identity, of who we are, of who we are called to be... Our face is covered by a shroud. It is a form of death. This shroud may be the mask we have made for ourselves to protect us from others, or to present ourselves as something other than what we are. Perhaps it is the mask of our ambitions... So many forms of death... Perhaps, too, we began our monastic life full of ideals and generosity, then we lost our illusions and became disillusioned. So our feet and hands are as if bound by bandages... We must then hear the voice of Jesus saying to us: “I am the resurrection and the life”.
Let us find in this beautiful symbolic text not only the courage to live the life offered to us to the full, but also the joy of hearing the Lord say of us too: “Untie him and let him go”.
Armand Veilleux