Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for April 3rd:  Psalm 36:5-11; Isaiah 42:1-9; Hebrews 9:11-15; and John 12:1-11.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

A couple of Sundays ago I preached on the Johannine passage of the raising of Lazarus.  The sisters Martha and Mary enter the biblical tradition independently through both the Lucan source and the Johannine source.  Surprisingly, Lazarus does the same.  With that said, however, most everything about these three New Testament characters is shrouded in mystery.  We cannot mark where history ends and tradition begins, and it is not the best form of biblical study to conflate their different stories from different Gospels into one blended story.  I assume that Martha, Mary and Lazarus were somehow important in the lifetime of Jesus and that memories of their special relationship with Him become the source-material for the biblical accounts which they inhabit. 

Luke shares uniquely the story of the day Jesus visited the two sisters (10:38+).  Also, Luke alone records Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the rich man (16:19+).  There is no connection between the sisters and the imaginary Lazarus in Luke, but none of these three names are ever mentioned in Matthew or Mark.  They are, however, all three mentioned in John’s Gospel.  Luke’s two sisters are sisters still in John, but the imaginary Lazarus of the Lucan Jesus’ parable becomes Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, and the one Jesus raises from the dead.  Something is going on here, but that something is lost to us.

From what we have in Luke and John, we can imagine that Jesus once told a parable about an anonymous rich man and a poor man named Lazarus.  In Jesus’ “the first shall be last” world, the rich man’s name is ignored and the poor man’s name is remembered.  Why the name Lazarus was chosen would be exciting to know, but we cannot.  Was there someone near and dear to Jesus by this name?  We can’t know.  Maybe ten or fifteen years later John writes his Gospel and Lazarus is now a real person not a character in a parable.  As in the parable, Lazarus in John’s Gospel flirts with that boundary between life and death.  Is there a connection here?  Possibly.

For all the glory and wonder associated with Lazarus in both cases, Lazarus himself is a rather dull character.  He never speaks a word.  He is much more acted upon than someone who acts.  The sisters are his opposite.  For the sake of brevity, in both different Gospel accounts, Martha is the one who busies herself with household tasks.  In Luke, Mary sits at the feet of The Teacher as a disciple among the other disciples.  In John, Mary is again at Jesus’ feet, but this time anoints them with a costly perfume, which Jesus accepts and acknowledges as preparing His body for burial.  Lazarus was simply one who was at the same table.

I would like to think that these three, Martha, Mary and Lazarus, were all important in some special way to the historical Jesus, but in possibly mundane ways.  Maybe they were simply friends of Jesus, a home where the tired Teacher could find rest, nourishment and companionship.  When Mark and Matthew tell the story of Jesus’ anointing, it is at another’s house (Simon the leper) and the woman is left unnamed.  Does John receive this tradition and alter it to the house of the sisters and to Mary’s generous act?  I think so.  Are these names created out of whole cloth, however?  I think not.  I imagine these are the actual names of people near and dear to the historical Jesus.  Maybe not the anonymous woman who anointed Jesus, maybe much more pedestrian than this, but nonetheless, these three loved Jesus and were beloved by Jesus.

As we enter Holy Week, I hope we have grown closer to Jesus.  I hope we are like a Martha, Mary or Lazarus, someone close to Christ even if our stories are ordinary.  It’s not as important that what we did because of our faith in Jesus is remembered as extraordinary.  It’s important that our faith is remembered as an ordinary, everyday, commonplace part of our lives.  How wonderful it must have been for Martha, Mary and Lazarus to be the proverbially house where Jesus could just show up and be welcomed.  May Lent help us to foster this familiarity with Jesus and He with us so that we may be as ordinary in our relationship with Christ.  We have no idea who Martha, Mary and Lazarus were, but I think they mattered to Jesus, and really, that’s all that matters.   
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for April 1st:  Psalm 31:9-16; Lamentations 3:55-66; and Mark 10:32-34.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is April 1st, commonly known as April Fools’ Day.  The New Year was once recognized as beginning at the Spring Equinox and its celebration lasted until April 1st.  The observance of the New Year was subsequently moved to January 1st.  The ones who resisted this change and who stuck with the April 1st celebration of the New Year were called April Fools.  Their obstinacy was mocked by others.  They held onto a tradition that was no longer meaningful.  They were locked into a tradition but only for the sake of the tradition.  Everything else had changed. 

Traditions are to be cherished.  If you are like me, you have traditions associated with Holy Week and Easter that are a beloved part of these sacred days.  The traditions become a hallmark of these occasions.  I have been dying Easter eggs with red onion peels since I did so with my grandmother when I was a child.  Those Easter eggs are an important part of Easter for me.  Traditions, however, cannot be allowed to become straightjackets.  They can’t lock us in place for their own sake.  Life requires the ability to change.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells His closest followers for the third time that He will suffer and die when they come to Jerusalem.  On each of those occasions, the disciples could not hear what Jesus was saying.  The traditions they associated with the Christ, the Messiah, were of a powerful and triumphant leader.  They held onto their Messianic traditions with such a deafening-obstinacy that they could not hear what Jesus was saying to them plainly the first time, the second time, and not on this third occasion. 

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday.  The citizens and pilgrims in Jerusalem for the Passover hail Jesus with Hosanna’s, basically save us, deliver us in Hebrew.  They claim Jesus as Son of David, thus the Messiah.  They cut down branches of palm to lay on the road in front of His beast as a sign of honour.  They, like the disciples, have an immovable tradition in their mind as to the image of the Messiah.  When Jesus does not fulfill the expectations that their traditions have ingrained in their minds and hearts, they turn against Him.  The same people who hailed Jesus with Hosanna’s on Palm Sunday are the ones who will cry “Crucify, crucify Him!” on Good Friday – because their traditions were straightjackets. 

As we prepare to enter Holy Week, let us look at the expectations our traditions hold before us.  Are we open to a Saviour who constantly surprises?  Are we willing to adapt as change alters our lives and our world … and our faith?  Do we hear Jesus, as did the disciples in today’s Gospel, but are we not willing to listen, just like they could not?  Are we like the people of Jerusalem who rejoice at Jesus’ approach when Jesus is the Saviour we make Him out to be, but who then pull back when Jesus challenges us with an unexpected, maybe unwanted, revelation? 

I invite you to come and join us for our Palm Sunday worship tomorrow.  Take one of the blessed palms home with you.  Keep it visible throughout the year.  Let it remind you of the example of the first Palm Sunday when words of praise were not sincere because they were offered without listening to what Jesus had to say.  Let them help us to make the conscious effort to listen for God’s still-speaking Word.  If you would like to join us online for our worship Service, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom login.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.