Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A

Why Did Jesus Weep?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A

St. Bridget Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota 

Sunday, March 26, 2023

In recent years, there has been a tendency to reduce Jesus to the level of a great teacher or a great prophet or guru. Non-Christians and disappointingly some Christians try to domesticate him, and present him merely as a moral teacher or philosopher. But that is not how the Gospels present him. The most fundamental thing to know about Jesus is that he is God. Jesus is the God-man. Although there is a hyper stress on his humanity, and yes, Jesus is human, but the most important thing to also know about him is that he is divine as well. As God-man, he came primarily as a cosmic warrior whose final enemy is death. He has come to do battle with those forces that keep us from being fully alive. The great St. Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.” God wants us fully alive, and those forces that prevent us from being fully alive, Jesus came to battle with them. 

Our Gospel for today is the raising of Lazarus. Lazarus is a friend of Jesus. When Lazarus fell ill, his sisters, Martha and Mary sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” Upon hearing the news, Jesus waits for two more days before going to Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus. By the time he arrives in Bethany, Lazarus had already been dead and in the tomb for four days. But while Jesus was still on his way, the sisters of Lazarus heard about his coming. The older sister, Martha, unable to wait until he arrives at their home, storms out to meet him. Standing before Jesus, Martha laments, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” With hopeful and assuring words, Jesus replies, “Your brother  will rise again.” But Martha thought he was talking about the final resurrection of the dead. Then Jesus makes the most fundamental statement upon which the whole of Christianity rests upon, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, they will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). After that, Martha returns and tells her sister Mary that Jesus wants to see her. By this time, Jesus is yet to enter their village. Maybe the crowd accompanying him is slowing down his journey. After all, the town of Bethany is not far from Jerusalem where the Jewish leaders are plotting to put Jesus to death. When Mary meets Jesus, she falls at the feet of Jesus and says to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Overtaken by grief and emotion, Mary begins to weep. Seeing Mary and the Jews who accompany her weeping, Jesus is deeply moved by their grief, and he weeps with them. Jesus then proceeds to the tomb of Lazarus. There, he asks them to remove the stone that covered the hillside burial place. Once that is done, Jesus looks up to heaven, prays to his Father and then commands, “Lazarus, come out!” From eternity, Lazarus hears the voice of Jesus, comes out of the tomb. Immediately Jesus commands, “Untie him and let him go.”

The narrative of the raising of Lazarus from the dead is a long one. There are several spiritual and theological themes to explore and preach about. Because of time constraints, I will limit my homily to the question, “Why did Jesus weep at the grave of Lazarus?” He knew he had the power to raise Lazarus, so why did he cry? By the way, this question has been a subject of debate among theologians, preachers and everyday Christian. For St. John Henry Newman, Jesus wept because “Their tears touched him… (just) as their miseries had brought him down from heaven. His ear was open to them, and the sound of weeping went at once to his heart.” In other words, Jesus wept because he cared. In every way, he was touched and moved by human misery. Jesus was and is not an indifferent, detached, unfeeling and stoic Savior. He is not indifferent to our reality. Jesus wept because he identified with the anguish of Martha, Mary and the Jews  and understood their sorrows. That’s what friends do. They cry when you cry. Add to it, Jesus wept because he hated to bring Lazarus back from heaven. He knew he was going to interrupt the heavenly bliss of Lazarus. He was about to interrupt the perfect joy and peace of his friend, Lazarus. He was about to cut short Lazarus’ perfect union with God and the saints. Lazarus was already having a great time in heaven, and now, all of that would stop at least for a moment. Jesus knew that heaven is the most wonderful place to be. It is the utmost desire and longing of the human heart. He wept for cutting short Lazarus’ full participation and enjoyment in heaven. Jesus also wept because right at the grave, he saw once again the consequences of sin. It is sin that brought about death. God wants us to be fully alive. The glory of God is the human person fully alive, so whenever we are not fully alive, God weeps. 

The shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept” (edakrusen ho Iesous in Greek) reveals the humanity of the Lord. He wept over the death of Lazarus; and the bad news is that he still weeps. Jesus still weeps over the destruction of human lives around the world. Look at Ukraine! Because of one man’s insanity and obsession, a once peaceful nation is facing a total wipe out from the face of the earth. Jesus wept and still weeps over the way we treat each other. He weeps at the fading of real love, sacrificial love. What we mostly see today is transactional relationships or what is today known as “situational dating” or “situationship”, and not true love. Genuine love is fading, and our world is becoming cold, inhospitable and intolerable. Jesus weeps over the growing religious apathy and indifference. He weeps for the increasing loss of the sense of the sacred and God among many people. He weeps for the spread of secularism and secularist ideology that tells people that they don’t need God to be truly happy, that all they need to be happy is more money, more power, more wealth, more honor, and more fame. Jesus wept over the death of Lazarus and he still weeps over the death of humanity in many people. Humanity is the condition of being human. To be human is much more than being in existence and being alive. Being able to eat, talk, engage in activities and move around tell you you are still alive. According to one of the giants of Russian literature, Leo Tolstoy, “If you feel pain, you’re alive, (but) if you feel other people’s pain, you’re a human being.” Jesus weeps because the human being in us is fading. 

The world population today is about 8 billion. That means we have 8 billion people, but how many of this huge number are human beings? This makes Jesus weep. Jesus wept and still weeps for the death of many dreams, death of faith, and the death of God in many hearts, homes, families and nations. Jesus wept and still weeps over the abuse of the wonderful things he has given to us. Food and drinks are being abused and being turned into idols. He weeps over substance abuse. A lot of people are controlled by food; their life is dictated by food and harmful drugs. Jesus wept for the death of Lazarus and he still weeps for the death of many people due to hunger, poverty, treatable diseases and neglect by their government and society. Jesus weeps for the division of our world into belts of prosperity and belts of poverty. He weeps for the division of the world into two rooms. In one room, things go to waste; in the other room, people are wasting away due to abject poverty. In one room, people are dying from excess and surplus, and in the other room, God’s children die from penury, poverty, destitution, misery, and deprivation. Jesus weeps that in one room, people are concerned about being overweight and obese, and in the other God’s beloved children are begging for charity. Jesus is aggrieved that poverty and deprivation are disfiguring his children. He weeps that untold suffering is assaulting and damaging the dignity of many. And why does Jesus cry for these situations? It is because each of these conditions prevents us from being fully alive. And the glory of God is the human person fully alive. When we are not fully alive, when we are not thriving at every level of our life, God is not happy. God is not glorified. Jesus is saddened. When people, under the weight of suffering, lack, and dehumanization weep, Jesus weeps with them. But each of us can lessen the tears of the Lord by bringing relief and new life to others. There are many Lazarus out there lying in their graves and waiting for another Christ— you and me, to bring them out of the grave. Individually, collectively, as a church we can speak like Jesus, “Lazarus, come out!” When the biblical Lazarus emerged from the grave, what did Jesus say to the people around? “Untie him and let him go.” The central mission of the Church from the time to Jesus to the present day is about untying and setting prisoners free. Remember the ongoing Synod in our Archdiocese. It is about evangelization. And evangelization is about bringing the wandering ones to Jesus. If you are not personally involved in the synod, you can pray for those who are currently being trained to return to their parishes later to inject fresh fuel that will kickstart the mission of untying the bounds. 

God bless you!