5th Sunday of Lent 2026

As we draw closer to Holy Week, the Church gives us one of the most powerful and dramatic signs in all of Scripture: the raising of Lazarus. This is not just another miracle. It is a turning point. It is a revelation. It is a promise.
At the heart of today’s Gospel from John 11 is a simple but profound truth: Jesus is Lord of life, even in the face of death.

Lazarus is dead. Not nearly dead, not in a coma; dead. He has been in the tomb for four days.  When Jesus arrives, he does not arrive to a scene of quiet resignation. He arrives to grief: deep, loud grief. Martha meets him first, Mary falls at his feet weeping. The crowd is weeping. And then, and this is one of the most beautiful and astonishing verses in all of Scripture: Jesus wept. Lazarus' two sisters say basically the same thing to Jesus: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Jesus responds to Martha: "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 this?"

But when Jesus tells them to roll away the stone, Martha interjects: "Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days." It's now too late because in their tradition, the soul lingers, unattached, near the body for three days, and moves on when decomposition begins, around the fourth day. She had already forgotten that He said "I am the resurrection and the life". Jesus calls Lazarus out of the dark tomb, still bound by the trappings of death, until Jesus tells the community "untie him and let him go".

"Do you believe this?" It is as pertinent today as it was then; right here, right now, in this church, aimed directly at each one of us. Do you believe this? in the middle of your own darkness, in the middle of your grief, your failures, your sins, your fears? Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life?

St. Paul tells us in today's second reading from Romans: "You are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you." There are two ways of living — life according to the flesh, which is life turned inward and away from God, and life in the Spirit, which is life opened up to God's transforming power.

Sin is a kind of death. When we give ourselves over to habits of selfishness, to bitterness, to pride, to lust, to despair — something inside us closes off. The light dims. The tomb door rolls shut...until...until Jesus calls us by name and commands us to "come out". Out of sin, out of despair, out of bitter unforgiveness, out of addiction, out of fear, out of whatever tomb that keeps us in the dark.

Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and we enter Holy Week. We will walk with Jesus to the Upper Room, to the Garden of Gethsemane, to the cross, to the tomb. It will be dark. It is supposed to be dark, but we walk that road knowing what Lazarus knew: that the voice of Jesus can shatter the silence of any tomb.

So today, the question Jesus asked Martha is the question he asks you and me, here, now, on this Fifth Sunday of Lent: "I am the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this?" Ponder that question through this final week of Lent. Let it open something in you, let it roll back whatever stone is sealing you off from God's loving mercy. Jesus is already standing outside, already weeping with you. He is already speaking your name...

​Peace.

Deacon Michel