The Decision to Awaken

Do you know how Lazarus felt that day?  While none of us have experienced actual death as he did, I bet that we have had a similar experience; and I bet that this experience is closer than you might imagine. I know it is for me.

Consider that moment when your alarm sounds in the morning. Are you feeling it yet? When I am awakened by my morning alarm, I am immediately presented with a decision: wake up and begin the day, or tap the “snooze” button, roll over, and imagine that I get to sleep for nine more minutes.  Sometimes, this decision plays out several times before I actually rise and shine.

The other day, I woke before my alarm, and when I became aware of that fact, I decided to close my eyes and lie in bed for a while longer.  Within a minute, a massive “BANG” of thunder and lightning jarred me to full consciousness, and I thought, “Okay, God! I’m awake!”

I imagine that this was something similar to the experience that Lazarus had that day, when the people rolled the stone away from his tomb, the light poured into the dark, dead space, and the voice of Jesus resounded, “Lazarus, come out!”

These Sundays of Lent are not simply random moments to fill the space before Easter. Nor are the stories we hear tales that are just episodes that happen to someone else – the Samaritan woman, the man born blind, Lazarus.  Rather, Sacred Scripture is speaking to us; and when we hear the voice of Jesus speak, He is speaking to us – in the very real and personal situations that we are living. Each week, we are the woman, confused in sin and thirsting for “more”; we are the blind man, stuck in darkness, longing for light; and today, we are Lazarus, dead in spirit, in total need of Christ.

Jesus, each time He is encountered, is that morning alarm. Each time we encounter Christ, we are presented with a decision: awaken and follow Him or tap that snooze one more time and wait. The unavoidable fact, however, is that we will have to get up eventually!

So today, with the dramatic and unprecedented story of the raising of Lazarus, we too hear that thunderclap and cannot deny that call of Jesus to us.

“Come out!”

Come out from your fear and shame.

Come out from your addiction and procrastination.

Come out from your shortsighted identification with your hardships and limitations – and even with your success and strengths.

Come out from your desire to compare yourself to others.

Come out from the darkness of sin and death.

And what do we come out to?

It can be (and probably will be) scary. It is very tempting to roll back over, to close our eyes, to return to that tomb. However, we are not made for the tomb! We are made for life – and not just the biological life that Lazarus returns to there.  We are created for the fullness of life, because, as St. Paul tell us, “You are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.” That is why Jesus commands those present to “Untie [Lazarus] and let him go.” Nothing should hold us back to our old life when we have truly encountered Jesus!

Jesus presents Martha with a challenging question.  It could be like that first alarm that you hear in the dark and cool morning.  He tells her a radical truth: “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?”

The renewal that the encounter with Jesus calls for is not just for the dead man Lazarus; it is for us all! Relationship with Christ means new life – and not only “new,” but eternal life! St. John Paul II said this about that life: “Here, dearest, is the great gift that the Lord renews for us with his Easter: a new life, free from the slavery of the flesh and from the disordered attachment to the ephemeral goods of the world. A renewed existence placed under the dominion of the Spirit, source of love, joy and peace.”

Through your faith in Jesus Christ, God has placed His Spirit in you that you may live, as Ezekiel says. And “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.”

Friends, Jesus is calling us all to come out from our darkness and doubt and to trust and live totally in and for Him. If we do that, we have eternal life. Don’t believe it? Then roll over and go back to sleep. Do you believe this? Then get up, come out, and live!