"How often have we, like Martha and Mary, blurted out those same words of pain and despair: 'Lord, if only you had been here, my brother… or sister or mother or father or friend would not have died.' And yet today's pathos-filled story from John's Gospel tells us what kind of God we have… a God who 'groaned' in spirit and was troubled. The Greek word used to describe Jesus' gut sentiment tells us that he became perturbed. It is a startling Greek phrase that literally means: 'He snorted in spirit,' perhaps in anger at the presence of evil (death). We witness the Lord weeping at the tomb of his friend Lazarus; a Savior deeply moved at the commotion and grief of so many friends of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. The shortest line in the whole bible is found in this Gospel story: 'Jesus wept.'
"Jesus reveals to us God who is one with us in suffering, grief and death -- a God who weeps with us. God doesn't intervene to prevent the tragedies and sufferings of life. If we had a god who simply swooped down as some 'deus ex machina' to prevent human tragedy and sinfulness, then religion and faith would simply be reduced to some form of magic or fate, and we would be helpless pawns on the chessboard of some whimsical god.
"Where is God in the midst of human tragedies? God is there in the midst of it all, weeping. This is our God who stands in deep, human solidarity with us, and through the glory of the Incarnation, embracing fully our human condition."
Reprinted from "I Will Open Your Graves and Have You Rise From Them," Biblical Reflection for 5th Sunday of Lent A by Father Thomas Rosica, CSB, President of Canada's Salt and Light Television. To access all Fr. Rosica's reflections in Zenit on this past week's Sunday readings, click here
