Lazarus

Dear Reader

It is likely that you will not be able to go to your church this Sunday because of the danger of contracting this virus or passing it on to others.

But you may wish to spend a little time in virtual union, communion, with others in the presence of the Lord.  So here are a few suggestions.

1. Choose a quiet place, gather your thoughts and spend a few moments placing yourself in the presence of God and asking his mercy on his people in this crisis.

2. Read John 11:1-45 pondering the scenes, the people and what is said.

3. The following thoughts may help you. John calls the miracles of Jesus ‘signs’ and signs, as we know, are not the real thing.  A signpost indicating ‘Harare’ is very different from Harare itself. John gives us few miracles; by my count, just six. Yes, people are cured or saved embarrassment (water into wine) or fed (bread in the wilderness) or, as with Lazarus, their very life is restored. But none of these events, dramatic as they are, are John’s account of Jesus’ message. They have no particular value except for what they point to.  And what they point to hasn’t yet happened when the miracles were performed.

So they are only signs or goods given on a trial basis.  If you are not satisfied you get your money back! And ‘the Jews’ were not satisfied and ‘walked with him no more.’

The real meaning and value, the real event they all point to, is the event we will recall on Friday week, April 10^th. Each year we are invited to go deeper into the Passion and stretch our minds and hearts to try to grasp what God has done for us on Good Friday. The little word, ‘for’, carries such weight! The scriptures tell us in many places - and Paul in particular in his letter to the Romans – that we were ‘helpless’ and under the power of Sin and Death. We could not save ourselves. It was as if we could do nothing about the corona virus: we are totally in its power.

We could only be saved by someone coming from outside, someone who was more powerful than we are. That person would have to win the battle ‘for’ us. But in order to do that he would have to be one like us and enter the struggle we experience every day in which we are defeated by Sin and Death. That is the crucial contest of men and women of every age and Israel, after the exile in Babylon, just simply gave up on it.

Jesus experienced that struggle in the garden, on the cross and even in his ‘descent into hell.’ His contemporaries did not know who he was and ‘did not know what they were doing’ when they crucified him. But we know. And so each year we follow the signs.  They all lead to Calvary and to our joy.       

4.  You could then end with a prayer in your own words, closing with the Our Father.