FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT


Waking Lazarus

FIRST READING: Ezekiel 37:12-14
I have promised, and I will do it
EZEKIEL'S VISION of the dry bones (found in chapter 37) is dazzling in its flamboyant imagery. First, a field of old dry bones. Next, skeletons knit together in the air! Finally, sinew and flesh creeping back over the forms so that human lives are restored to the world, planted firmly on the land that God ordained for them. The vision ends with these passionate words about resurrection. God’s vow to bring life out of death for those who belong to the Maker of the Covenant.

These words are especially thrilling to us because we’ve all been there, in the valley of the dry bones—in illness, grief, emotional paralysis, shame, the endless ways in which people go dead in the midst of life. And our graves have been opened and will be opened again by the Promise-maker, who holds the key to every door.

SECOND READING: Romans 8:8-11
The spirit lives because of justice
IF EZEKIEL prophesied that God would put flesh back on our bones, Paul seems determined to strip us back down to mere spirit. But this would be a faulty reading of Paul, who uses the Greek word for “flesh” in the larger sense of the material realm. Paul is not warning us against our bodies or the created world necessarily, but against placing our trust in things that are passing, otherwise known as materialism.

We who are of the Spirit cannot afford to bank on the flesh, because the only sure thing about the world is that it is heading toward extinction. The indwelling Spirit assures us that we are not born for corruption but for eternity. And eternity is a long way to drag your luggage.

GOSPEL: JOHN 11:1-45
“Lord, the one you love is sick”
THERE IS no more powerful miracle story in the gospels than what happened that day in Bethany. The scene was taut with emotion: Martha’s strength, Mary’s grief, the mourners’ wailing, Jesus himself moved to weeping at the pain and loss that death yields. And then Jesus lifts up his prayer, and a dead man wriggles awkwardly out of a hole, still bound by his shroud. What wonder, and terror.

Waking Lazarus from death is what finally condemns Jesus to his own death in John's gospel. He goes too far for the authorities, who are as spooked by the reports of this event as some of the witnesses themselves. To wake the dead is a testimony to power that is practically uncontainable. If not stopped, such power could change the established order for all time.

Questions for Reflection
    • When has God called you back to life from a season of death? How did you hear the call to “rise”?
    • In what ways do you still rely on “the flesh” and not the living Spirit of God?
    • The story of Lazarus shows Jesus at his most human and divine moments. What is the most powerful lesson you learn at Lazarus’ tomb?

Action Response
Someone you know is experiencing a season of death (grief, depression, failure). How can you help them to hear the call to “come forth” to life? Be a messenger of life this week.


These meditations reprinted with permission from God's Word Is Alive: Reflections on the Lectionary Readings for Sundays and Holydays by Alice Camille, For more information on the book or to order, visit the ACTA Publications website or call 800-397-2282.