Frustration and Transformation
Gospel: Jn 4:43-54
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031724-YearA.cfm
During the time of Lent, The Roman Catholic Church uses different gospels on these Sundays, if you have adults that are being baptized and joining the Church at Easter. These readings are referred to as scrutinies. These three ‘special’ gospels are the Woman at the Well, the Healing of the Blind Man, and the Raising of Lazarus. The first one tells of Jesus being the living water, the second of him being the light of the world, and in last one refers to him as the resurrection and the life. The beauty of these three gospels is the transformation that occurs through the encounter with Jesus.
In this last story, Jesus shows that he has power over death. A lot of people focus on the passage: “Jesus wept.” It is often recognized as Jesus showing mourning for his friend that has passed. What I have always found fascinating is another component of Jesus’s humanity in this text. Four times in the passage, Jesus is described as feeling perturbed. People kept commenting about him coming too late to heal Lazarus as Lazarus was already dead, and Jesus got annoyed. When I read the passage, it’s hard for me to read it as Jesus’s tears being a sign of him mourning Lazarus and more an expression of his frustration. He knew that he was going to resurrect Lazarus. The passage never talks about Jesus’s sadness, but it surely talks about his frustration over and over again.
And why would Jesus be so frustrated? The people in the story put limits on God. They saw an impossibility of the healing power of God. They put limits on what could be done. They didn’t realize that the resurrection wasn’t just a moment in time, but something that could always happen. With God, everything is possible, yet we constantly put limits on God. With God, we can be transformed into a new life. This isn’t a one-time occurrence but is something that happens time and time again. We are never too distant or too far away from the transformational power of God. This applies to us and everyone else. God encounters us where we are at. Looking at these three gospels, God encounters us in our day-to-day lives (the woman at the well), in our suffering and our healing (the healing of the blind man), and in our life and our death (the raising of Lazarus).
God’s love is transformative regardless of where we are and regardless of what is occurring in our lives. God is always here to bring us to healing and a transforming life. God guides us through order, disorder, and reorder (life, death, and resurrection). Different phases and moments of our lives may be focused on one of these three different themes, but each one is occurring at the same time. Regardless of where your current focus may be, God is with you, loving you, desiring the best for you, and ready to heal you and lead you to growth. There may be more work and effort needed from us, but God is always there ready and willing, while sharing in the experience with us.
