Sunday Reflections
There is still hope
1. ✠ A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (11:1-45)
The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.”
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.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
had already been in the tomb for four days. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. 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 said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her, “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. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”
He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
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?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. 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.”
Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. 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.”
And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice,
“Lazarus, come out!”
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.”
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
2. The readings of this Sunday propose a message of hope, namely that when God steps into a bad condition he turns it to a good one. This message runs through the Sunday gospels of Lent. Last Sunday Jesus encountered a man born blind and changed his condition for better. Today the story is the same. He raised Lazarus from dead. The first reading provides the prelude. The Israelites were getting old in exile, living in utter hopelessness. God used the valley of dry bones to assure prophet Ezekiel (37:1-14) that he has the power to give life to dry bones and turn them to an army. He assured him that with God no condition should be seen as hopeless. The prophecy was later realized when God delivered Zion from bondage. It was like a dream to the people themselves but not to God.
3. Today’s gospel is another concrete proof that with God there is always hope for a better future. A man called Lazarus was sick and Jesus was informed about it. He waited for the man to die before going to the family. He said that his staying behind for two days after the message was to create opportunity to manifest the glory of God. When he arrived the place he started an enquiry about the people’s faith on him as the resurrection and the life. He saw their faith and felt their pains. He even wept. He then decided to demonstrate the power of God over life and death. He asked the people to open the tomb of Lazarus. The sister of the deceased objected saying that the corpse would be smelling already having passed four days in the tomb. The situation was truly hopeless. For Jesus there was still hope. He called the dead man back to life.
4. When those present saw what happened they gave praise to God and believed in Jesus. We can now see why Jesus delayed in coming. God’s delay in coming to our aid may be a calculated attempt to use our situation to win souls. The raising of Lazarus from dead has a lot to teach us. First of all it foreshadows the resurrection of Christ which would take place in few days time. Beyond this eschatological message it has more to say about our life as christians. It shows that God may delay but he is never late. His time is the best. It calls us to be patient with God and not give up so easily when faced with situations that seem hopeless.
5. Today we are faced with accepting a result of an election which we know does not represent our aspiration for a better Nigeria. The situation seems hopeless but Jesus is showing us today that there is still hope. He may delay in bringing us the response that we desire but that will only serve to manifest his glory. We should not give up even if our situation seems like that of a man who has stayed four days in the tomb. With Jesus there is still hope, hope for our political rejuvenation but also hope for our moral rebirth. No matter how long one has been in any sin, with Jesus one can still become like the dry bones that returned to life. Just as the sisters of Lazarus invited Jesus to come to their help we should also invite Jesus into our moral life even if it has decayed. The Lenten season is a good time to do this through sacramental confession. So many people have done this and they discovered that there is no sinner who cannot become a saint if he opens his ears to the call of Jesus who called Lazarus to come forth from the dead.
6. There is still hope for you to come out of your present difficult situation. God needs you to believe this. This was the condition given to Martha by Jesus and upon it was Lazarus raised to life. Yes, there is still hope for you to become a saint. All you need do is open your ears and your heart to Jesus. Make him your number partner in all your life endeavours.
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