Come Out: Believe in the Resurrection
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April 5, 2025As we enter this 5th Sunday of Lent, we are also on the third Sunday of Scrutiny of the Elect. We are reminded to continue to pray for them that through this last scrutiny, they begin their final walk towards the baptismal font where they will “die in their old self” and finally embrace the “newness of life” in Jesus.
This final Sunday of Lent, we somehow feel the frustrations and grief of Martha who tells Jesus “If you had been here, my brother would not have died…” (John 11:21) Whether she’s confessing her faith to Jesus who could have healed her brother Lazarus or accuses Jesus of being neglectful of their brother, Jesus assures her of one thing, “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.” (John 1:25).
First, death is unavoidable and all of us might have that fear in face of death. But how can we have resurrection if there’s no death? We have to allow our old, sinful lives to undergo certain death for us to receive the newness of life in Jesus.
Second, whatever difficult circumstances we are in right now, whether inside the “stinky tomb” of despair or “wrapped with burial cloth” of grief, Jesus is calling us just as he calls Lazarus, “Come out there!”
Third, when Lazarus came out from the tomb, just as Jesus told the people to “untie him and let him go,” we have a community to help us out be freed and be untied with whatever ceases us to move forward in this life.
Jesus is offering us a chance to embrace new life in him, filled with God’s grace and mercy. Remember, Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that he is the Messiah, to the man born blind that he is the Son of Man and today, he tells Martha that he is the resurrection and the life. There is just this question Jesus is asking us just as he asked Martha: “Do you believe this?”
Recalling the theme of the liturgical readings on the three Sundays of scrutiny, each theme guides and examines the Elect on how they relate with Jesus as the Living Water (Samaritan woman at the well), as the Light of the World (Healing of the man born blind) and as the Resurrection and the Life (the raising of Lazarus from the dead).This is a journey of the Elect and our own journey as a community, in which through the Word, we are challenged to renew our hope in Jesus who quenches our thirst, transforms our darkness into light and assures us that death is not the end but there is a resurrection to life eternal.