5 Lent, Yr C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

5 Lent, Year C (2025)                                                             The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Isaiah 43:16-21                                                                  St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

John 12:1-8

In the name of the one, holy, and loving God:

in whom we live, and move, and have our being.  Amen.

“Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany…”

Bethany is a suburb, if you will, of Jerusalem – only 2 miles away.

This is a somber day for Jesus…

        the next day he will enter the holy city to begin his journey to the cross.

He knows he signed his own death warrant

when he raised his friend, Lazarus, from the dead.

When he raised Lazarus, he knew full well what he was doing:

            he was showing forth God’s power and glory,

                        and he knew that this decision would cost him his life.

Just a few days ago,

when he visited Lazarus’ tomb,

       he watched the unfolding of his own death and resurrection.

Mary and Martha had sent word to Jesus that their brother –

and his friend, Lazarus,

       was gravely ill…

so that he might come and lay hands upon him and heal him. 

But…

Jesus intentionally delayed his visit,

     knowing full well that Lazarus would and, in fact, did die

      so that Jesus could show forth God’s power by raising Lazarus from the dead.

As Jesus made his way to Bethany the first time,

Mary meets him along the road,

kneeling at his feet.

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (Jn 11:32).

“Where have you laid him?”

“Come and see,” they replied.

Jesus began to weep.

“Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. 

It was a cave,

and a stone was lying against it.

      Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ 

“Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him,

    ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’” (Jn 11:38-39)

“They took away the stone…”

“Lazarus, come out!” Jesus said.

“The dead man came out,

his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth,

and his face wrapped in a cloth. 

“Jesus said to them,

‘Unbind him,

        and let him go.’” (Jn 11:43-44)

Jesus restored Lazarus to life –

            a man who was unquestionably dead.

As a result, the chief priests and Pharisees feared for their lives.

They were certain that when the Romans got wind of this,

they would come destroy the Temple and all the Jewish people.

Therefore, Jesus must die.

Better for one man to die than a whole people.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus knows what he’s about.

            He knows he’s going to die.

But, on the side of his humanity,

I don’t think that makes his impending death any easier for him.

When he chooses to go to Bethany after Lazarus dies –

in order to restore his life –

      and Mary meets him on the road and says, “Come and see…”

Jesus weeps.

I wonder: What causes Jesus to weep?

Perhaps Jesus weeps because his friend has died.

Or perhaps Jesus weeps because Mary invites him to boldly proclaim his faith,

and that is a scary prospect…embracing his own death.

Maybe Jesus weeps because he is invited to exhibit God’s life-giving Power

            as he returns breath to Lazarus,

        even though it means that Lazarus’ life will ensure Jesus’ own death.

Maybe Jesus weeps

because he in invited to participate in the coming of God’s Kindom

      with the certainty that there will be suffering along the way.

In today’s reading Jesus returns to the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus

before he enters the holy city

        and the final stretch of his journey toward the cross.

Knowing what difficulty lies ahead,

maybe Jesus returns to their house as a place of solace and strength.

Or maybe he wants one last look at Lazarus

so that his confidence in God’s life-giving power is strengthened.

Life can indeed follow death!

            Maybe he just wants to see tangible proof one more time.

Mary, too, knows what lies ahead for Jesus,

and she is not afraid to boldly proclaim it.

She does what is foolish in the eyes of all but Jesus.

She lavishly pours perfume on his feet –

            perhaps even the same perfume used at Lazarus’ burial –

                        and then she wipes his feet with her hair.

It is absurd,

            outrageous,

                        wasteful

to use up a year’s worth of wages for this.

But perhaps it is Mary’s gift to Jesus that provides him with the courage to continue

            and the affirmation that this path is right.

Judas objects to such extravagance,

as he is trying to tend to his own security,

his own future. 

If the perfume were sold and the money put into the common purse,

he could skim a little off the top to add to his own coffers.

When I hear this story, I long to be Mary…

            full of boldness and foolishness in my discipleship,

                        but I’m afraid that all too often I fill the shoes of Judas instead.

It’s hard to let go of trying to secure our own future

and trust in God’s life-sustaining and life-giving power instead.

Just in case we miss the message,

as Jesus enters the holy city he tells his disciples:

                        “Those who love their life lose it,

       and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 

“Whoever serves me must follow me,

and where I am,

there will my servant be also.”  (John 12:25-26a)

I close with a story told by an Anglican priest named Father Joseph.

            He was from Sudan.

Fr. Joseph was in Sudan with some other priests, preaching to crowds.

He was preaching about Jesus and how he lived, died, and was resurrected

and about how even now Jesus offers us new life.

The local medicine man was in the crowd, and he yelled out to Father Joseph,

“If your Jesus is so powerful,

pray that he will heal this woman.”

The medicine man brought forward a woman who was bent over and could barely walk.

Father Joseph told us that fear immediately gripped him.

            What if he prayed and this woman were not healed?

                        He would look like a fraud.

He and the other priests summoned their courage and prayed to Jesus for healing for this woman as they laid their hands upon her.

He said that when they finished praying and removed their hands,

she went dancing off into the crowd.

Father Joseph told us there were many stories of healings

and even a story of someone being brought back from the dead.

God offers us life.

Sometimes we might be called to do things that appear wild, crazy, and outrageous to the world around us.

What we are called to do may even appear to bring us death,

            but that is never the end of the story.

Next Sunday, Palm Sunday…

we enter Jerusalem again with Jesus, shouting “Hosanna.”

The following week is a long one in which we celebrate that death is not the final word,

            that darkness never overcomes the Light.

For God’s lavish Grace in our own lives,

let us say,

“Thanks be to God.”

And let us pray that we may live out the boldness of Mary:

 proclaiming such lavish love to the world around us,

       even if we appear to be making fools of ourselves.

Amen.