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.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” 35 And Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” 37 But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?” 38 So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. 42 I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”
Mary in her grief fell at Jesus’ feet and expressed her belief that if Jesus had been present earlier her brother Lazarus would not have died. Mary and the Jews who had followed her were weeping out of despair over Lazarus’ death and that deeply moved Jesus. Jesus asked where they had laid Lazarus to rest. When they told Jesus to follow them, he wept. Jesus could have wept for multiple reasons. He felt great compassion and empathy for those mourning Lazarus’ death, but he could also have felt great sorrow because his disciples, Martha, and Mary had failed to understand the depth of what he had told them, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die (Jn. 11:25-26). The Jews saw Jesus’ love for Lazarus and knew that he worked miracles so they asked why he could not have intervened to prevent Lazarus’ death.
When Jesus reached the tomb which was in a cave, he told them to remove the stone covering the entrance. Martha, still without understanding that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, told Jesus that four days had passed since Lazarus died so there would be a stench from his decaying body. Jesus reminded Martha to believe in what he had previously told her, that if she had faith, she would see the power of God. Jesus prayed to the Father in thanksgiving and for the crowd to believe that he was sent by God. Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb who had to be freed from the burial cloths. This symbolized liberation from death and the restoration of life. In raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus demonstrated his power over death and that he is the Son of God, the Messiah, the life of the world (Jn. 5:25-26), but he also condemned himself to death.
Almighty and eternal God, amid our sorrow and doubt, help us to see Your glory revealed through the words and actions of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Grant us the faith to believe in Him as the resurrection and the life, even in our most difficult moments. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
__________________________________
References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
Comments