Sunday Sermon, 22 March 2026

The Fifth Sunday of Lent, Passiontide, St Andrew’s Church, Sedbergh

You can read the sermon below, or listen here:

A reading from the Gospel according to St John

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ But when Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.’ After saying this, he told them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.’ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’ Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow-disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

1 Corinthians 2:1-16 NRSVA

John’s Gospel portrays Jesus Christ in both his divinity and humanity. We see both sides in this famous (and quite long!) passage from John’s Gospel. 

On the one hand, John clearly wants us to recognise Jesus’ divinity in this passage. We see it in his foreknowledge of what is to occur; his sovereignty over death as he raises Lazarus; and above all, in his identification with God in his famous saying: ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. In the Jewish apocalyptic expectations of the day, the general resurrection was something that God would bring about at the end of time. John portrays Jesus as claiming that future power of God in the present – he is the one who holds the divine power of resurrection and life. The raising of Lazarus, the seventh and final sign in this Gospel, powerfully demonstrates this.

But on the other hand, this passage is one of the clearest examples of Jesus’ humanity. We see this in the deep emotions that he experiences. When faced with the reality of Lazarus’ death, and the weeping of Mary and the other mourners, Jesus responds with tears. We are told he is deeply troubled in his spirit, and profoundly moved. How do you think the disciples felt at this point? It is not often we see our leaders cry. In contrast, Jesus weeps openly, and in his vulnerability we see his true humanity.

John portrays Jesus Christ as being both divine and human. But notice that his divinity does not overpower or replace his humanity. Rather, his human emotions are integrated into his whole person. He expresses his emotions openly before others, and they contribute to the fullness of his understanding of the world.

*  *  *

In our Lent Groups over the past few weeks, we have been exploring Ignatian Spirituality through the writings of the Jesuit priest Gerry Hughes. One of the spiritual exercises he explores is the Daily Examen. This is an approach to prayer which encourages us to listen carefully to our emotions as we seek to understand our everyday experiences, and discover God’s will for our lives.

Lent is a particularly good time for this. It is a season of self-denial, when unexpected emotions rise to the surface. This Lent I have given up watching TV shows in the evening. It doesn’t sound like a big thing, but actually it has been interesting to notice the different emotions that come up instead; boredom, frustration, and impatience. But with time and prayer, these emotions can be the gateway to a renewed faith and awareness of God. That’s one of the reasons for self-denial in Lent – we let go of the things that bring emotional comfort and escapism, so that we can press on into the heart of God. The difficult emotions that we experience are the desert places we must pass through on our way to the oasis of God’s presence.

Many of us find that our inner emotional life can make us feel uneasy, and so we prefer to avoid it. But it is an essential part of how God has made us, and it is right to listen and respond to our emotions, just as Jesus did. His anger in the temple, his weeping over Jerusalem, and his rejoicing with his friends are examples of Jesus listening to and being responsive to his emotions. The emotions are the soul’s way of helping us to step back and see the bigger picture.

*  *  *

They also play an important role in how we relate to one another in the Christian community. 

It’s interesting to notice that in John’s portrayal, Jesus’ divine authority means that he knows what is going to happen. He deliberately delays visiting Lazarus in order to demonstrate his power over death. He tells the disciples these things will happen for his glory. And he knows, along with the reader, that the raising of Lazarus is a foreshadowing of his own experience of death and resurrection. 

And yet, despite this foreknowledge, Jesus is not detached from the situation, but fully engages with the emotional responses that Martha, Mary, and the others are experiencing. He is modelling for us St Paul’s instruction to the Christian community to ‘weep with those who weep’ (Romans 12:15 NRSVA).

You may have heard of the local group that is run by our mission community, ‘Griefshare’. Every Tuesday morning, those who are grieving are invited to join with others who will sit alongside and offer support and a listening ear. It is a very practical and down to earth example of this teaching being put into practice in our local churches.

Occasionally you come across an attitude in the church which wants to bypass the weeping of Good Friday in order to jump straight to the rejoicing of Easter Day. But in John’s Gospel, Jesus knows what is to occur – but he does not use this as an excuse to avoid the pain and grief of Lazarus’ death. In fact, it may be that it is his confidence and assurance in his power over death which enables Jesus to enter into and fully participate in the emotions of the crowd. Fear suppresses the emotions; but love casts out fear, and enables deep connection in the Christian community.

*  *  *

As I close, I want to draw on another spiritual exercise that we have been exploring in our Lent Groups – the use of imaginative prayer. In this practice, we place ourselves into the story, and see the events unfolding from different perspectives, as a way of engaging fully with the life of Christ.

Where are you in the story of the raising of Lazarus?

Are you amongst the disciples, who are fearful of the authorities, and don’t want to go back to the place they had to flee because of a fear of being stoned to death?

Do you identify with Thomas, whose fear has hardened into cynicism as he sneers: “Let us also go, that we may die with him”?

Do you recognise the cautious hope of Martha, who although disappointed that Jesus didn’t come earlier, still trusts that somehow, someway, he will be able to make a difference to the situation?

Or, like Mary, are you overcome with sorrow as you grieve the loss of your brother Lazarus?

Fear, cynicism, cautious hope, and sorrow. These are just a few of the emotions on display in this narrative. Jesus is with each one in their experiences, just as he promises to be with us in our own responses to God.

Christ says: “I am the resurrection and the life”. The life that he calls us to includes our emotional life, as well as our spiritual and bodily life. As we look to Holy Week, let us listen carefully to our own emotions, and the emotions of those we travel alongside, and integrate these with our spiritual searching and questioning. Jesus calls us to fullness of life; his love and power enable us to face grief honestly, to respond with the full range of our human emotions, and to trust in him as our redeemer and our friend. Amen.