What Lazarus Wanted

Reflection for March 22, 2026 – Fifth Sunday of Lent

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, we hear the story of Jesus performing the miracle of resurrecting his friend Lazarus from the dead. Find today’s reading here.

What Lazarus Wanted

“It must be so crazy, being God,” one of my friends said in high school. “Does it feel like playing The Sims all day? Just making people do stuff because you want to see what happens?”

I think we all sometimes fall into this warped manner of thinking about God’s omnipotence. It’s understandable, to a degree. The flimsiness of our own agency in this world, our real ability to impact or change anything … well, it all feels especially puny when you put it next to the power of the Creator. “Oh God, thy sea is so great,” goes the old fisherman’s prayer. “And my boat is so small.”

But today, in the raising of Lazarus from the dead, we are reminded that God is all about giving us agency.

Jesus could have raised any random person from the dead on this, the Fifth Sunday of Lent. His intention was clear: to foreshadow his own passion, death and resurrection, and to exhibit the closeness of God to those who mourn. “This illness is not to end in death,” he tells his companions. “But is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:4)

So if it could have been anyone, why was it Lazarus?

I think the answer has to be that this was something Lazarus agreed to. Perhaps not in an explicit way, for he didn’t know the mind or the plans of God. But in his friendship with Jesus, in the strength of his faith and the depth of his devotion to God, in every prayer he ever uttered — “Lord, let your will be done” — he was agreeing to it. Over and over, in what he said and what he did, Lazarus, beloved friend of Christ, said, “Lord, I love you. Lord, use me.”

In this last full week of Lent, let us say it with him: “Lord, I love you. Lord, use me.”

©LPi