New Life in Christ 在主內新生

Fifth Lenten Sunday, Year A
Theme: New Life in Christ 在主內新生

Jesus did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfil (Matthew 5:17). In raising Lazarus, Jesus fulfilled the prophecy which God spoke through Ezekiel, “You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and make you come up out of them, my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may come to life, and I will … Then you shall know that I am the Lord. I have spoken; I will do it --- oracle of the Lord” (Ezekiel 37:13-14). In context, God put Ezekiel in the centre of a broad valley filled with white bones (37:1). Firstly, God formed the bones back into individual skeletons and filled them with flesh. Yet there was no breath in them (37:8). Then God commanded the four winds and breathed into them and they came to life and formed a vast army (37:9-10). Here, we see that with the spirit of the Lord, the dead is able to come back to life. In Hebrew, the breath, the wind and the spirit are one and the same word רוּחַ. Thus, the spirit of the Lord is the essence of life.

People who insist on interpreting the Bible literally find it difficult to explain the longevity of biblical figures in Genesis 5: Adam died at 930 (5:5) though God says he would die the day he ate the Forbidden Fruit (2:17); Seth at 912 (5:8); Enosh at 905 (5:11); Kenan at 910 (5:14); Mahalalel 895 (5:17); Jared 962 (5:20); God took Enoch when he was 365 (5:23-24); Methuselah 969 lived the longest (5:27). At last, Lamech the father of Noah died at 777 (5:31). In order to explain why people nowadays no longer live that long, the literal interpreters of the Bible would quote the etymology passage which reads, “The Lord said: My spirit shall not remain in human beings forever, because they are only flesh. Their days shall comprise one hundred and twenty years” (6:3) However, 3 chapters later, we read that Noah died at 950 (9:29)! How can God contradict Himself! Obviously, the flaw lies not in God but in the literal interpretation of biblical passages. We should keep our minds open and look for what messages the verse conveys instead. For example, the spirit is the animating principle of the flesh; or the spirit is too powerful for the flesh to carry forever; or God sets the upper limit of human age to 120, or God is the author of life or any other reasonable statements and weigh their merits. Joining hand with the prophecy in Ezekiel, I buy the idea that the spirit is the animating principle of the flesh. It seems to be the most reasonable interpretation.

Unlike the two other raisings of the dead in the Synoptic gospels, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days (John 11:39). Thus by calling Lazarus out of the tomb (11:43), Jesus Christ proclaims to the world that they should know that He is the Lord when He made Lazarus come out of the tomb (Ezekiel 37:13). Consequently, many Jews began to believe in Jesus (John 11:45) but the Sanhedrin planned to kill Him (11:53) and Lazarus too because of him, many Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus (12:10-11). This brings us to the Lucan parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus who, if he ever survived the Sanhedrin plot, must have been a famous figure in the early Church. Luke named the beggar “Lazarus” to press a point. Luke’s message at the end of the parable reads, “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead” (Luke 16:31). Thus, for those who genuinely followed the teachings of Moses and the prophets, they should have no problem in accepting Jesus as their Lord after witnessing the resurrection of Lazarus. Members of the Sanhedrin had met some witnesses. But they did not genuinely listen to the law and teachings of the prophets. Their prejudices prevented them from seeing and accepting the obvious truth.

This brings up a seemingly out of context answer Jesus had earlier given to the disciples. When Jesus tarried long enough in the north until Lazarus had died, He expressed His intention to go down to Judaea. His disciples warned Him of the risk, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” (John 11:8) Jesus answers, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles because the light is not in him” (11:9-10) Sounds irrelevant, right?
When we meditate more, we remember that Jesus Himself is the light of this world (8:12, 9:5). To elaborate. Whoever follows Him will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (8:12). In the gospel of John, the Word (Son) of God is the source of life and this source of life gives light to the human race (1:4) and therefore “the light of life”. In other words, in Jesus, humanity find light and thus life. Like the Jews who believed in Jesus after seeing the raising of Lazarus, they found life in Jesus. On the other hand, whoever rejects Jesus is cutting off his own life-line with God. That person is in grave danger because sooner or later, he would lose his spiritual and perhaps even his physical life. Thus, members of Sanhedrin who wanted to kill Jesus and Lazarus were in grave spiritual danger. In the end, they handed Jesus over to Pilate to be crucified. They had crucified on the cross the only person on earth who could call them out of their tombs (Acts 3:15)!

Jesus also told the disciples to do the works of the Father while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work (John 9:5) In other words, followers of Christ would help build the Kingdom of God and to do God’s will on earth when they are in union with Jesus Christ. But whoever rejects Jesus is unable to do the works of the Father, to do the will of God! All efforts would be in vain. Beware, it is a matter of degrees. I believe that nobody on earth, not even the most successful saints, is able to attain 100% union with Jesus even though He leaves behind the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. To be candid, few people could reach the level of Contemplation in Lectio Divina. Within us, there are different degrees of concupiscence hindering us from attaining perfect union with the merciful Lord. Very few people are willing to surrender totally their own will.

Brethren, in our baptism, we were given a second chance, much like Lazarus. Be sure that Jesus loves you just like He loved Lazarus for whom He wept (11:35). His love is the greatest because He lay down His life for us (15:13) while we were still unworthy sinners (Romans 5:8). Killing our old-self is a good thing because our “cancers” will go down with the old-self. In Christ, we’ll not contract deadly diseases anymore because Jesus heals! Amen!
God bless!
2020 Reflection
Picture Credit: wikipedia.org