{"id":613160,"date":"2022-03-10T10:47:33","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T15:47:33","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-24T15:02:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:02:06","slug":"walking-toward-the-cross-lent-5-c-april-3-2022","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/walking-toward-the-cross-lent-5-c-april-3-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking Toward the Cross, Lent 5 (C) \u2013 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/lectionary\/lent-5c\/\">[RCL] Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-purple-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-purple-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm\/?e=DFMS6563600805&#038;light=true\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-purple-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-purple-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/L5-2022-Cover-FB-1024x536.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-263177\" style=\"width:512px;height:268px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the run-of-the-mill way that John narrates this dinner party with Jesus, there is a kind of shocking absurdity to it all. Taken together with the preceding chapter, the scene unfolds like this: Word reaches Jesus that his beloved friend Lazarus is gravely ill. He sets out for Bethany, but he doesn\u2019t make it in time. Lazarus is dead\u2014and not just recently dead; John goes out of his way to make the point. The King James Version renders it most striking of all: \u201cLord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days,\u201d Martha, Lazarus\u2019s sister, tells Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jesus, however, is undeterred. He cries out, \u201cLazarus, come out!\u201d and Lazarus the dead man walks out of his own tomb, alive. And now, that same man, the recently-deceased Lazarus of Bethany, sits down to dinner with Jesus. One can\u2019t help but imagine what the conversation must have been like. \u201cSo! Lazarus! Been on any interesting trips lately?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just offstage, John lets his readers in on a bit of dramatic irony. Between Jesus\u2019 resuscitation of Lazarus and this odd dinner party, the chief priests and the Pharisees call a meeting of the council. Jesus has been performing increasingly worrisome signs, and now there\u2019s talk that he\u2019s raising people from the dead. And so, a plan is hatched to have Jesus arrested and put to death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We can almost feel the tension in the air as Jesus, Lazarus, Mary, Martha, and the others sit down to dinner. The cost of Lazarus\u2019 new lease on life might very well be Jesus\u2019 own life, and one dinner guest\u2014Judas\u2014was prepared to do everything in his power to make it so. Just then, Mary, who hung on Jesus\u2019 every word, got up from the table, let down her hair, opened a jar of powerfully scented nard ointment, anointed Jesus\u2019 feet, and began wiping them with her hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although it is tempting to lose ourselves in a web of whys, examining all the reasons Mary\u2019s action was scandalous\u2014social conventions, disrupting the intimacy of the dinner, distracting from the return of Lazarus, quasi-sexual innuendo (seriously\u2014Google \u201cfeet in the Hebrew Bible\u201d)\u2014staying with the story itself evokes a depth and meaning that is far more powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Judas, with his gaze firmly fixed on the Almighty Dollar, sanctimoniously critiques Mary\u2019s behavior on economic grounds. \u201cWhy was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?\u201d In other words, Judas sees Jesus anointed and scoffs, \u201cWhat a waste!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jesus then makes explicit what John the Gospel writer had already made implicit: the day was coming soon when he himself would be poured out as a costly and precious sacrifice for the life of the world. Jesus says, \u201cYou always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.\u201d Although we often hear those words with a degree of confusion, the dinner guests and Judas, in particular, would have known exactly what Jesus was up to. He was rebuking Judas\u2019 facile protest by quoting Torah\u2014Deuteronomy 15:11, to be exact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou always have the poor with you&#8230;\u201d would have fallen on Jewish ears in the same way that \u201cDo unto others&#8230;\u201d falls on our own ears. \u201cYou always have the poor with you,\u201d the commandment begins, and those who heard Jesus utter it could finish the verse for themselves: \u201cTherefore I command you, \u2018Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.\u2019\u201d In other words, this is not a missed opportunity to serve the poor and needy; rather, this is a prime opportunity to be in communion and fellowship with the One whose days were numbered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is easy for those of us who know how the story ends to dismiss the fear and uncertainty of those who can see nothing other than the cross and hear nothing other than the approaching drumbeat of those who would shortly demand Barabbas. In the same way, our haste to prepare for the coming of Eastertide can short-circuit our ability to put one foot in front of the other and walk through the pain and the suffering and the agony of Holy Week.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, Easter is coming, but it is not here yet\u2014and it cannot be, because our Lord has yet to meet his fate, taking our place; his body has yet to be broken for us; his blood has yet to be shed for the life of the world. Our Lenten journey culminates at the foot of the cross. It is only by walking shoulder to shoulder with our companions on the way that this dusty and worn path can become for us nothing less than the way of life and peace. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-95289d59-ea23-4209-820f-33a812d0be83\" href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Sermon-Lent-5-C-English.docx\">Word \u2013 Lent 5 (C) Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Sermon-Lent-5-C-English.docx\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-95289d59-ea23-4209-820f-33a812d0be83\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-6d10f84e-7f29-4865-9b7a-6f8866f70e34\" href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Sermon-Lent-5-C-English.pdf\">Word \u2013 Lent 5 (C) Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Sermon-Lent-5-C-English.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-6d10f84e-7f29-4865-9b7a-6f8866f70e34\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[RCL] Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8 Despite the run-of-the-mill way that John narrates this dinner party with Jesus, there is a kind of shocking absurdity to it all. Taken together with the preceding chapter, the scene unfolds like this: Word reaches Jesus that his beloved friend Lazarus is gravely ill. He sets&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[51,43,52,3],"tags":[310],"class_list":["post-613160","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lent","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-lent-5c"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":51,"label":"Lent"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":310,"label":"Lent 5C"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/613160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/613160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3485596,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/613160\/revisions\/3485596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}