Fifth Sunday in Lent, Cycle A
Probably the most important common factor in these four texts is the concept of restoration to life. Of course, each text depicts restoration to life in a specific situation, and the situation of each of us is unique and different from each of the situations in these biblical texts. Therefore, we have rich resources available for use in our proclamations this coming weekend of the message that God restores life also among us in our times.
Since in the northern hemisphere these texts are used during the season of spring, we can use nature as an illustrative aid in our presentations. We see in addition, with their theme of restoration to life, these texts bring a “little Easter” message this Fifth Sunday in Lent. They provide a foretaste of the Easter message.
Ezekiel 37:1-14
This proclamation of restoration to life to the people and nation of Israel must have been highly significant to the Israelite exiles in Babylon. Many of us, within our political situations that are so different from the political situation of the Israelite exiles in Babylon, may find it difficult to perceive how this message must have been appreciated by the people to whom it was initially addressed. Those of us who are ourselves — or who identify closely with — remnants of scattered, forsaken Native American tribes, and black people torn from proud African national cultures by slave traders and slave owners can relate most closely to this message, as the black spiritual “Dem Bones” indicates. Jewish people throughout more than twenty centuries of having no nation could relate most of all to these texts, and Jewish people today can see in the nation of Israel evidence that God through intense struggle has given them new life and hope in their ancestral home. Their faith and their hope are celebrated in this text, and we as Christian proclaimers of the gospel can witness to their faith in the midst of our congregations also. Therefore, this Ezekiel text should have a prominent place in our proclamation this coming weekend. It sets the tone for the other readings through its vivid reversal of death and decay as scattered dry bones are brought together and given new life by the power of God.
Psalm 130
From the depths of despair, the psalmist cries to the Lord, asking for forgiveness and waiting for the morning. Both for the individual and for the nation, restoration is something that only God can bring. With the psalmist, we believe that only God, in God’s steadfast love, can restore our lives, both now and eternally. We believe that only God can accomplish our redemption. This is the Lenten message for us.
Romans 8:6-11
Paul does not distinguish clearly in Romans 8:11 whether he is referring to God making alive the mortal bodies of his readers after their physical death or during their present existence. The context, however, suggests that Paul was referring primarily to the present existence of his readers. The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ provide life now, not only in the future after physical death. We are called to demonstrate that life in our situation, just as Paul was called and demonstrated it in his.
John 11:1-45
Next to the dramatic vision of the restoration to life of the people of Israel in the Ezekiel 37 account and the restoration of life of Jesus in the resurrection accounts in our Four Gospels, this John 11 story is the most spectacular restoration to life story in our biblical texts. Through it the Johannine tradition carries the proclamation that God raised Jesus from the dead a step farther. It asserts that God has given to Jesus power to restore to life even people who have been in the tomb longer than Jesus himself was, and whose bodies have already undergone considerable decay. Lazarus is said to have been in the tomb not three days as Jesus had been, but four (John 11:17, 39), and unlike the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection we are shown in this story the dead man actually walking out of the tomb. Decaying, foul-smelling flesh has become sound, healthy, beautifully restored flesh. Truly this is a “Little Easter” text within Lent.
