March 21, 2026
The Gospel lesson this weekend is about the raising of Lazarus from John chapter 11. This is the game changer as they say. As a matter of fact, what Jesus does in Bethany among all the losers of Bethany is prove that death does not have the power we think it really does and it empowers everyone to know that they can face down all that the world throws at them and that they will prevail because death is not the end. So dangerous was this to the power structure that a contract was put out on Lazarus to kill him. How crazy is that? Death, and the threat of deaths, is the ultimate threat that power holds and Jesus showed that life is eternal and that death is not the end. Jesus showed this, not in the temple or in the palace, but in the amongst the losers of Bethany. In this moment Jesus aligns himself with all of the everyday people who do most of the living and the loving and the dying in the world. This is not a happening in the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, this is a happening among the living and the hard working – us.
Let us pray: Father in Heaven, for Jesus’ sake stir up our confidence in your eternity. Help us to face the powers, the illnesses, the difficulties, with faith and resilience. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.