Lent - Week 05a
Resurrection of Lazarus
(From Navarre Gospel Commentary)This is one of Jesus' most outstanding miracles. The Fourth Gospel, by including it, demonstrates Jesus' power over death, which the Synoptic Gospels showed by reporting the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Matthew) and of the son of the widow of Nain (Luke).
The Evangelist first sets the scene; then he gives Jesus' conversation with Lazarus' sisters; finally, he reports the raising of Lazarus four days after his death. Bethany was only about three kilometers (two miles) from Jerusalem. On the days prior to His passion, Jesus often visited this family, to which He was very attached. Saint John records Jesus' affection by describing His emotion and sorrow at the death of His friend.
By raising Lazarus our Lord shows His divine power over death and thereby gives proof of His divinity, in order to confirm His disciples' faith and reveal Himself as the Resurrection and the Life. Most Jews, but not the Sadducees, believed in the resurrection of the body. Martha believed in it.
Apart from being a real, historical event, Lazarus' return to life is a sign of our future resurrection: we too will return to life. Christ, by His glorious resurrection through He is the "first-born from the dead", is also the cause and model of our resurrection. In this His resurrection is different from that of Lazarus, for "Christ being raised from the dead will never die again", whereas Lazarus returned to earthly life, later to die again.
According to St. Augustine, Martha's request is a good example of confident prayer, a prayer of abandonment into the hands of God, who knows better than we what we need. Therefore, she did not say: But now I ask You to raise my brother to life again. All she said was: I know that You can do it; if you will, do it; it is for you to judge whether to do it, not for me to presume. The same can be said of Mary's words, which St. John repeats at verse 32.