1. The change that the Gospel announces is radical: a step from death to life. Catechumenal and liturgical tradition of the Church has seen in the passage of Lazarus (Jn 11) a test that serves to revise the experience of faith, that appears here in a concrete situation: a man that dies in the plenitude of life.
2. A serious disease breaks out in a disconcerting way in the circle of Jesus’ best friends at Bethany, at Lazarus’s house: ¿How can something like that happen? The sisters sent word to him saying: Master, the one you love, is ill. When Jesus heard this, he said: This illness is not to end in death but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. What does Jesus mean to say? That this illness is not so serious? This is a literal interpretation, but here everything has a more profound meaning: What is the sense of this illness? ¿Has death the last word? Or is it the glory of God?
3. Jesus loves Mary, her sister and Lazarus. Nevertheless, he stays two more days where he was. Apparently, he has to think, pray and reflect on it. Two days later, he says to his disciples: Let us go back to Judea. To go back to Judea was to enter the lion’s den. The disciples said to him: The Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go there? But Jesus sees things clearly: If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. Jesus has received a special light.
4. Jesus gradually reveals his plan: Our friend Lazarus is sleep, but I am going to awaken him. The disciples understood it literally, but it is not that. So Jesus said to them clearly: Lazarus has died, and I am glad for you that I was not there, that you might believe. For Jesus, death is like sleeping from which it is possible to awake. So: How did Jesus know that Lazarus had died? What was this mysterious communion or communication? Anyway, he is glad he was not there: the delay has a meaning. And the decision was taken: Let us go to him. The disciples have not yet discovered the life that Jesus announces, the life that overcomes death. The risk that they run is something that they know clearly: Let us also go to die with him. The contrast is very strong: Jesus announces the resurrection and the life, running the risk of death.
5. When Jesus arrived, Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. As a matter of caution, Jesus does not go near the house. The house is full of Jews that had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. Bethany is near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went to meet him, and she said to him: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Martha complains to him, she reproaches him. Jesus was not there. If you had been here, he would not allow Lazarus to die. But even now, she knows that whatever Jesus asks of God, God will give you.
6. Jesus said to her: Your brother will rise. Before a death that leaves us speechless, Jesus announces this word: the resurrection and the life. Martha said to him: I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day. Martha knows what they have taught her and, in truth, it doesn’t enthuse her very much: the last day, the end of history. There is extension of time. Jesus told her: I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live; and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe in this? Jesus questions traditional belief. There is a difference between what Martha knows and what Jesus announces. He is (present!) the resurrection. Whoever believes in him, ever if he dies, will live; moreover, he will not die. That is to say, death does not exist: it is only a step (see Wis 3,2). This is said not only to Lazarus, but also to every one of us. This question is also addressed to us: Do you believe in this? Martha answers with a confession of faith: I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.
7. Martha goes to call her sister Mary secretly (again, a measure of prudence): The teacher is here and he is asking for you. Mary gets up quickly and goes to him. Nevertheless, the Jews follow her (the measure of prudence collapses) presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. And ourselves, what are we doing? Are we going to meet the Lord, who is the resurrection, or go to the grave to weep there?
8. Mary also reproaches Jesus. Jesus weeps. He also is affected by Lazarus’ death. So the Jews said: See how he loves him. But some of them said: Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died? We also today can hear him: Jesus, who continues doing miracles, why doesn’t he do one for us? So Jesus, perturbed again, went to the tomb.
9. Jesus says: Take away the stone. Should it to be taken literally? Lazarus only appears in John’s gospel. Jesus has presented the parable of the prophet Ezekiel. The people are in exile, they are dead; moreover, it is a field of dry bones. Before God they complain: Our bones have dried out, our hope has vanished. Well, they say to these bones: Hear the Word of the Lord...I will open your graves; o my people I will open your graves, and I will bring you back to the land of Israel (Ez 37,4-12; see Is 49,9)). In this case to come back from the exile, to come back home, is to be resurrected. But Jesus applies it to death, the worse of the exiles. Then, what does resurrection mean? Reanimation of corpse? Or, rather, the life that Jesus announces (beyond death)? The family understands it literally: by now there will be a stench... Nevertheless, it is necessary to believe in order to see the glory of God.
10. The disciples take away the stone that separates those who are alive from those who are dead. All of this is a symbol. Man is a being that walks between two worlds. Jesus gives thanks to his Father for hearing him with words of psalm 138: I thank you, Lord, ... certainly you have listened to the words of my mouth. The situation has been transfigurated. Jesus cried in a loud voice: Lazarus, come out! And the dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth (see Ez 37,6). Jesus says to them: Untie him and let him go! It is a strong, powerful Word, a Word that resurrects dead men (see Jn 5,25). The rest of us have to give a hand, the opposite to what is normally done: take away the stone, take the dead man’s clothes, and let him go. In a way, the resurrected man also walks (see Lk 24,15), once free from the bonds of death (Ps 18,6).
11. Many of the Jews believe in Jesus. But some of them, as expected, went to the Pharisees and told them what happened. So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin. Obviously, they do not believe in the signs that Jesus does, but they see that they spread among people as fireworks: If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation. That is to say, if we leave him, the political agreement with the empire will break, the Temple’s security and the Nation’s security will collapse: From that day on they plan to kill him. So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews (Jn 11,53). It is clear, Jesus’ actions have a political consequence and he is not in favor of the agreement.
12. Six days before Passover, Jesus comes to Bethany: they give a dinner for him there (12,2). Lazarus was with him at the table. In a way, the resurrected man also has dinner (see Lk 24,30). The mourning is converted into a feast (Is 61,3). Really: How great is the glory of the Lord! (Ps 138,5). The complaint is converted in extravagance: Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus. But Judas calculates: Three hundred denarius, three hundred day’s wages!, one could give it to the poor. For Jesus the anointing refers to his own death: Leave her alone, let her keep this for the day of my burial. A large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus. The chief priests decide to kill also Lazarus (12,10). But, by any chance is it possible to kill a resurrected man? ( see Lk 20,36).
* For personal or group revision: Do you believe this? Do you see the glory of God?