Forechoes of the Passion
“Jesus Wept.”
This is the Bulgarian artist Julia Stankova’s Resurrection of Lazarus (2006). Stankova gives us an intriguing interpretation of the event: it is as though we are within the tomb, looking out. A bewildered Lazarus is there, sitting up, awakening, still wrapped in his graveclothes. Out in the light, we see several figures peering in, shocked: Mary and Martha, presumably, and some of Jesus’s disciples; perhaps some family friends. Oddly, in a departure from the Biblical narrative, Christ himself is also there in the tomb, with his friend whom he is calling back to life, holding out his hand to welcome him back to the land of the living.
There is peculiar intimacy to this image: an intimacy that inverts the priority given in John’s text, where Jesus stands outside and prays “on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you [God the Father] sent me,” and speaks the authoritative command, “Lazarus, come out” (Jn 11:42-42). Instead, a silent Christ has entered in: he sits in the darkness with him, and beckons him forth: inviting him to new life, to step forth from the dark womb of the grave, and be restored again to amazement and joy of his grief-stricken family.
You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people.
— The Word of the Lord by the Prophet Ezekiel (Eze 37:13)
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Texts for this Week
Prayer
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
I am the Resurrection
Catholic monk and folk musician John Michael Talbot has written and performed a number of contemporary songs of faith, melodious and delightful in their simplicity — very often, doing nothing more than setting the text of Scripture to music, as is the case here. Jesus’s comforting words to Mary in this week’s Gospel echo to us: “I am the Resurrection and the Life” — and are then addressed to us, “Do you believe?” It is a faithful representation of John’s intent in his Gospel: to usher us into gentle contact with this living and lifegiving Christ, who invites us to consider and to contemplate the extraordinary and, indeed, cosmic dimensions of the claims made about him in the text.
