A Poem a Sunday
Lent V – A
April 2, 2017
John 11:1-45 - NRSV
The Death of
Lazarus
11 Now
a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister
Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped
his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent
a message to Jesus,[a] “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when
Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for
God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Accordingly,
though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard
that Lazarus[b] was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place
where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to
Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now
trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered,
“Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not
stumble, because they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk
at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” 11 After saying this,
he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken
him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he
will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death,
but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told
them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not
there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was
called the Twin,[c] said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go,
that we may die with him.”
Jesus the
Resurrection and the Life
17 When
Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus[d] had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now
Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles[e] away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to
Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard
that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha
said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But
even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23 Jesus
said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I
know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus
said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[f] Those who believe in me, even though they die,
will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do
you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are
the Messiah,[g] the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
Jesus Weeps
28 When
she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her
privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she
heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet
come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The
Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and
go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb
to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at
his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not
have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her
also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He
said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus
began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But
some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept
this man from dying?”
Jesus Raises
Lazarus to Life
38 Then
Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone
was lying against it. 39 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 four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you
that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took
away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for
having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this
for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent
me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come
out!” 44 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.”
The Plot to Kill
Jesus
45 Many
of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did,
believed in him.
Footnotes:
John 11:3 Gk him
John 11:6 Gk he
John 11:16 Gk Didymus
John 11:17 Gk he
John 11:18 Gk fifteen stadia
John 11:25 Other ancient authorities lack and the
life
John 11:27 Or the Christ
A
Poem a Sunday
Lent
V – A
Raised
A border wall
that separates
the Other
from the Us.
We trust in
bricks and mortar
more than our
common
human dust.
Darkness and light
meet each day.
No walls divide
this
natural inter-play.
We are dust
and return to such.
Barriers are
illusions
we dare not trust.
Life and death
share a common
space
there are no walls
that separate.
Winter to Spring,
Death to Life;
the cycle of seasons
in human strife.
Lazarus is only
entombed
in Winter for a
spell.
The Christ shatters
illusive walls.
Our fears will be
dispelled.
Copyright
@ A Poem a Sunday
May
be used with permission
kennstorck@gmail.com
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