Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle A): Jesus Offers Us Much More Than Endless Life

The famous Christian writer C.S. Lewis once suggested that Lazarus was the first Christian martyr. Why did he make this unusual claim? His contention was that Lazarus had already gone through the experience of death when Jesus called him back to life. Lazarus would then need to go through the process of dying again at a later time. By being brought back to life, Lazarus was, Lewis suggested, the first disciple who was called upon to commit to dying for Christ.

This take by Lewis might seem a bit strange, but it points to a deeper reality. Our physical life in this world is not our final end. It is not the ultimate life we hope for. As is often the case in The Gospel of John, there are two layers of meaning in the discussion in the passage.

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Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle B): Choosing the Ultimate Self-Sacrifice

Once and only once in my life, I did a celebrity stakeout. My wife and I spent hours in a Croatian hotel to see members of the band Duran Duran, who were known to be staying there. We managed to meet three of them briefly. I have to wonder if a sort of celebrity stakeout is happening at the beginning of today's Gospel passage too when some Greeks come to see Jesus and try to gain access to him through the disciples.

In the context of the passage, Jesus has just ridden triumphantly into Jerusalem. Many in the city expect him to claim the Messianic kingship. During the day, he is teaching in the city, accompanied by his disciples. By night, he is at a hidden location at the Mount Olives outside of the city, so he is not as easily accessible during these days as before. Are the Greeks hoping to see him for spiritual reasons or because he is widely regarded as the rising power of the political order?

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Fourth Sunday of Lent (Cycle A): Are We Blind to God's Graces?

Today's Gospel passage reminds me of an ironic time in my life. When acquaintances would ask about how things were going in my life and I would give them a brief overview, they would invariably tell me how happy they were that things were going so well for me. The irony was that I was feeling absolutely miserable about my life during this time. I was simply unable to see the blessings that had been given to me.

In today's passage, the leaders do not see the blessing that is so plainly before them. Ironically, the blind person regains his sight, but the people who have been able to see physically are not able to see spiritually and they disregard even the physical evidence before them.

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Fourth Sunday of Lent (Cycle B): How Is Our Sin Working for Us?

The Gospel passage for today alludes to an account in The Book of Numbers (21:4-9) where God punishes the Israelites for their sins by sending seraph serpents among them to bite them. After they repent, God instructs Moses to make a bronze serpent and to lift it up among the people. As long as they gaze upon the serpent, they are healed from the snake bites. They can escape the consequence of their sin by accepting the healing grace of God, given to them in the form of the bronze image.

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Third Sunday of Lent (Cycle A): Christianity Is a Proposal of Marriage

Back in the 90's, I saw a quote that has stayed with me over the years. The quote said: Christianity is not a religion. It is a proposal of marriage. In many ways, those few words capture the essence of our faith.

In the Old Testament, the relationship between God and Israel is often depicted as a marriage. Israel is the bride, many times unfaithful, and God is the aggrieved husband who keeps calling his beloved back to him. As Scripture scholar Brant Pitre expounds in his book Jesus the Bridegroom, the marriage metaphor continues in the New Testament.

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Third Sunday of Lent (Cycle B): The Grace of God Is Not Transactional

In today's Gospel passage, Jesus shows anger because the Temple leaders are taking advantage of the people. According to the Mosaic Law, the Israelites must travel to Jerusalem periodically and have various sacrifices offered on their behalf in the Temple, many of which involve animals.

However, the Temple leaders make a financial racket out of the necessary sacrifices.

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Second Sunday of Lent: The Gate of Heaven Is in the Shape of the Cross

Modern audiences are usually horrified by the account of the sacrifice of Isaac. How could, the objection goes, God be so cruel as to command Abraham to sacrifice his son, even just as a test of his willingness, even without requiring to go through with the sacrifice itself? But our objections are rooted in our own cultural setting. We need to see the situation from Abraham's perspective.

Child sacrifice was a common practice among the pagan religions at the time of Abraham. Many parents would offer the lives of their children in exchange for material blessings. For Abraham, the command to sacrifice Isaac would not have been shocking or unusual. The surprise would have been the command to stop the sacrifice. God was teaching Abraham that he did not need to perform such an evil act to curry favor with him. Quite the contrary.

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