How is your heart?
Lent 5
April 3, 2022
Fr. Tim Nunez
I suppose we’ve all had the experience of hunkering down during a storm. The last hurricane was Irma in 2017, about 4½ years ago. The storm came in strong during the day on September 10th, 2017 and blew hard most of the night. We had our 3 younger children plus 2 of our daughters-in-law with us that night, all huddled together in our family room, watching the news, watching movies, playing games and hoping for a lot of things.
We hoped that we wouldn’t lose power. That none of the oak trees around our home would fall on it. That our new roof would withstand the winds. We prayed that people across the state would be safe and that help would come quickly to those who needed it.
But in the midst of the storm we were comforted by our little gathering. Thankfully we were safe. It was a special time, a memorable time for us. I went back and looked at the pictures and videos I shot during and after the storm; there is laughter and lots of love.
When Jesus and his disciples gathered in Bethany with Martha, Mary and Lazarus they are in the midst of two massive storms. On the one hand, word about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead has swirled throughout the region. Lots of people saw it, there were many eye witnesses. It’s an astounding story to tell and everyone who hears it must be struck with awe and wonder at who Jesus really is and what his presence means for Israel. “There was this guy, he was four days dead and buried in a tomb and Jesus called him out. Whoa, dude!”
On the other hand, all of that excitement, all of that momentum, has created a storm among the chief priests and the Pharisees. Just before this passage, we learn that the high priest, Caiaphas, who would later preside at Jesus’ trial, had told the council that “It is better that one man should die for the people” and that he had prophesied previously that Jesus’ death would unify Jews across the world.
The storm had another aspect, too. Lazarus had become famous and everyone wanted to see this guy that Jesus had raised. Jesus and Lazarus had withdrawn from public view, and this night’s dinner, while in their hometown of Bethany, was at the house of Simon, a leper Jesus had healed. Just after this passage, we learn that the authorities also devised a plot to kill Lazarus.
In the midst of these converging storms, while danger is everywhere outside, this group has gathered in a quiet, private moment. We’ve seen a similar scene before, when Martha got irritated because she was doing all the work and Mary was focused on Jesus. But this is different. Martha is again busily serving everyone. Mary is again focused on Jesus. But they are doing so in light of their brother being raised from the dead. They saw it happen. The disciples saw it happen. It sets a different mood for almost everyone, everyone except Judas.
When the Matthew, Mark and Luke mention Judas as one of the twelve, each of them adds, “the one who betrayed him.” But none of them mention him again until Judas does betray Jesus. John points out Judas’ wrong heart a couple of times before the Passion, including right here. Judas saw Lazarus raised, just as he saw everything else Jesus did and spent years listening to Jesus teach. And yet, in this beautiful, quiet and intimate moment when they are with Lazarus and the house is filled with perfume, his resentment is clear.
Jesus’ response to him is weighty. Everything else in the world will carry on, but in less than a week, Jesus will be dead. He will rise, of course, but they’ll only physically have him for 40 days after Easter, a little while indeed.
What does this mean for us, and more specifically for you and me personally? In one sense, we spend time together every week huddled as family, apart for just a little while from the storms that are going on in our lives and in the world and focusing on Jesus. That’s true for those joining us online as well. We even have people in the kitchen right now preparing to serve us. That’s not true for those joining us online. Or maybe it’s true for them – I have no idea!
Where are you in the scene? Are you at Jesus’ feet, looking for truth and grace? Are you awed by his power and humility? Or are you observing and soaking it all in, the friendship, the food, the fragrant offering of the perfume.
Or are you struggling inside? No one wants to be Judas, but we are all at risk of resentment, greed and irritability. We are all subject to anger and frustration when things aren’t right or don’t go our way, and especially when we’ve been wronged in some way. Any of us can be distracted by any number of the cares of the day. All of that is perfectly natural, and all of that is deadly.
Look well and hard at Judas. See the ways those sorts of grinding negative thoughts block us from finding Jesus in the moment, be it a special moment or any moment, they inhibit us from receiving the spirit. This is why repentance is central to our life with Jesus. When we repent, he forgives and restores us.
Paul is a shining example of these storms raging in his own heart. To begin with, he was on the side of the Chief Priests and the Pharisees in trying to stamp out the Apostles’ witness to Jesus. Once he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, he fell at Jesus’s feet and effectively spent the rest of his life adoring, worshipping and serving Jesus with every fiber of his being. He got irritated and frustrated at times, sometimes with the churches he planted and sometimes with himself. But he never stopped striving, never stopped repenting for the ways he fell short of the glory of God in Christ Jesus.
Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)
After the hurricane passed we had a ton of clearing up to do. The yard was buried a foot deep or more in little oak branches, the residue of the larger ones being stripped. There was a lot of work to do, we had to get on with it. Identify what’s not right in your hearts and mind, what’s not right in your relationships and endeavors. Repent, forget it and strain forward, ever forward, toward Jesus.
AMEN!