Sermon Central
-
Nothing Is Lost Series
Contributed by Dr. John Singarayar Svd on Mar 9, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: The Fifth Sunday of the Lent
Nothing is Lost
Scripture
Reflection
Dear sisters and brothers,
Of all the miracles that Jesus did, the raising of Lazarus ranks as the most astonishing one to the people of his time.
According to the traditional Jewish belief, the soul of a dead person somehow remains with the body for three days.
After three days the soul finally departs from the body never to return, and that is when corruption sets in.
When Martha objects to the opening of the tomb and says, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days” (John 11:39), she is expressing the common view that this is now a hopeless situation.
Is that why Jesus delayed coming to the funeral, to let the situation become “impossible” before acting on it?
Bringing a person back to life, who is already four days dead and decaying, is unthinkable.
But, when Jesus heard this he said,
“This illness is not to end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:4)
Jesus was cool.
Jesus was not worried when he heard, “Master, the one you love is ill.” (John 11:3)
Jesus believed as it is written in Ezekiel: “I will put my spirit in you that you may live” (Ezekiel 37:12-14).
God is powerful.
God is the creator.
God brings out dry bones to life.
There is no place for fear.
The disciples were afraid that Jesus would be killed.
Jesus gives courage to the disciples saying: “If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.”
Jesus is the light of the world.
The disciples did not understand it immediately.
They need a clear-cut direction.
In quick action, Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go to die with him.”
There is no more fear of any sort, fear of persecution, fear of people, fear of the audience, fear of life, fear of exams, and so on.
There may be sickness, cancer, or deadly illness.
There may be a delay in our prayer, our problems, our pains, difficulties, and situations.
There may be death, death of our loved ones.
There may be a hopeless situation.
Saint Paul says, “The Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).
The spirit of hope cannot have a death.
The spirit of belief cannot have an end.
It is a continuation.
It is not a statement.
It is a paragraph.
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
After three days the soul finally departs from the body, never to return, and that is when corruption sets in.
This was a belief.
There was a situation of hope against hope.
Jesus breaks the hopeless situation to reveal the glory of God.
This miracle is a challenge to never give up hope, even in the hopeless situations in which we find ourselves.
It gives us hope to live our lives that Jesus is there for us as we read: Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus is the master of all.
He knows the situation.
He knows the seasons.
He knows our innermost thoughts.
He knows our pain.
He knows our difficulties.
He knows our sorrows.
He knows our failures.
It was the proclamation of her faith.
It is our faith as well.
We need to learn from Martha and her faith in Jesus Christ.
We too are called to do so in our lives when we face hopeless situations in our lives.
The first act of the disciple is to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God.
The second act of the disciple is to worship him.
Mary worships Jesus.
We read: when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him,
she fell at his feet and said to him,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.”
Proclamation and worship lead us to cooperate with God.
We must learn to cooperate with God.
That is the reason, Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
It is an important statement.
Do we understand why people should do this work of rolling away the tombstone to expose a stinking dead body?
We do not understand.
But It was in obedience to Jesus Christ.
Here, we need to note that Jesus did not command the stone to roll away of its own accord without bothering people.
All we know is that God’s power seems always to be activated by human cooperation.
For the same reason, Jesus invites us to cooperate with God’s work to experience the glory of God in our lives.
