Jesus said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”
The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the people were just now
trying to stone you, and are you going there again?”
Jesus answered, “Let us go to Lazarus.”
Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples,
“Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
—John 11.7-8, 15-16
Jesus faces the death of his Beloved friend.
He suffers the loss, and in love is death’s victim.
Yet after two days—on the third day—he rises
to go to Lazarus, to be victorious over death.
But Thomas knows—ah, Thomas, later
we’ll call him “Doubting”—but he knows:
first you have to die. Victory over death
can only be attained by entering death.
Jesus will have to die, a little bit,
in his powerlessness, in his deep, helpless sorrow,
in the sisters’ grief and anger.
Go with the Risen One and die with him.
The paths of righteousness (for God’s sake)
walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
This is the journey toward the cross.
Through the tomb toward the glory.
Through the dying to the rising.
Only in the depths of his loss
will Jesus touch the power that is beyond him.
Only when he weeps at death can he command life.
Let us also go, that we may die with him.
________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
March 24, 2020