Fifth Sunday of Lent (March 18, 2018)
Year A Gospel (Joh 11:1-45)
The Death of Lazarus
1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2 (It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with perfume, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)
3 So the sisters sent word to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.”
Gen 22:2
2 Then he said, “Take now [stand firm for me in this trial] your son [Abraham: I have two sons], your only son [Abraham: Each is the only one of his mother], whom you love [Abraham: I love them both]—Isaac [all this, so as not to overwhelm Abraham by springing the command upon him, and, also, to endear the command to him]—and go to the region of Moriah [Jerusalem], and bring him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will show you.”
Rashi’s Commentary
Take now—Heb. קַח נָא is only an expression of a request: God said to him, “I beg of you, stand firm for me in this trial, so that people may not say that the previous trials were no real tests” (Sanhedrin 89b).
Your son—Abraham said to God, “I have two sons.” He answered him, “Your only son.” Abraham said, “This one is the only son of his mother and the other is the only son of his mother.” God then said, “Whom you love.” Abraham replied, “I love both of them.” Whereupon God said “Isaac.” Why did he not disclose this to him at the very first? So as not to confuse him suddenly lest his mind become distracted and bewildered and in his confused state he would involuntarily consent, when there would have been no merit in his sacrifice, and so that he might more highly value God’s command and that God might reward him for the increasing sacrifice demanded by obedience to each and every expression used here (Genesis Rabbah 55:7).
Bring him up—He did not say, “Slaughter him,” because the Holy One, blessed be he, did not desire that he should slaughter him, but he told him to bring him up to the mountain to prepare him as a burnt offering. So when he had taken him up, God said to him, “Bring him down” (Genesis Rabbah 56:8).
Sanhedrin 89b:11
God said to Abraham: “Please take your son, your only, whom you love—Isaac” (Gen 22:2). When God said: “Your son,” Abraham said: I have two sons. When God said: “Your only,” Abraham said: This son is an only son to his mother, and that son is an only son to his mother. When God said: “Whom you love,” Abraham said: I love both of them. Then God said: “Isaac.” And why did God prolong his command to that extent? Why did He not say Isaac’s name from the outset? God did so, so that Abraham’s mind would not be confused by the trauma.
Sefer HaYashar, CHAPTER II The Pillars Of The Service Of God And Its Motivation 23
The fourth quality: The pious man’s love for all the good things in the world is considered as nothing by him when compared to his love of God, blessed be he. Behold, the Creator, blessed be he, said to our father, Abraham, peace be upon him, (ibid., 22:2), “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac.” And he said “whom you love” in order to show men that Abraham rejected and abandoned him whom he loved exceedingly because of his love of the Creator, blessed be he.
4 But when Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6 So when he heard that he was sick, he then stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
Gen 22:14
And Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide [i.e., he will choose for himself that place for the reposing of his Divine Presence and the sacrifice of offerings], of which [place] it will be said [in future generations] to this day: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
Rashi’s Commentary
The Lord Will Provide—Its real meaning is as the Targum renders it: The Lord will choose and provide for himself this place to make his Divine Presence reside in it and for sacrifices to be offered there.
Of which it will be said to this day—In the generations to come people will say of it, “On this mountain the Holy One, blessed be he, shows himself to his people.”
To this day—The future days, like the words “until this day” wherever it occurs in the entire Scriptures: that all future generations who read this passage will refer the phrase “until this day” to the day in which they live. The Midrashic explanation is: May God see this binding of Isaac every year to forgive Israel and to save them from punishment, so that it may be said “in this day”—in all future generations—“there are seen in the mountain of the Lord” the ashes of Isaac heaped up as it were and serving as a means of atonement (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 23).
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”
8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?”
9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the daytime, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
11 This he said, and after that he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.”
12 The disciples then said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”
13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he was speaking of natural sleep.
14 So Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
15 and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Therefore Thomas (who is called Didymus) said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with him.”
Jesus Comforts the Sisters of Lazarus
17 So when Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the tomb four days.
18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off,
19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.
Gen 37:35
And all his sons and all his daughters came to console him [one view: a twin girl was born with each son, and
each married a step-sister. Another view: “daughters” here are daughters-in-law], but he refused to be consoled [consolation not “taking” for a living person who is thought dead]. And he said, “For I will descend on account of my son as a mourner to the grave.” So his father [Isaac] wept for him.
Rashi’s Commentary
And all his daughters—R. Judah said: a twin-sister was born with each of Jacob’s sons and they each took a step-sister to wife (It was these daughters who comforted Jacob). R. Nehemiah said: their wives were Canaanite women and not their step-sisters; what is meant then “by all his daughters”? His daughters-in-law, for a person does not hesitate to call his son-in-law his son and his daughter-in-law his daughter (Bereishit Rabbah 84:21).
But he refused to be consoled—A person does not accept consolation for one living whom he believes to be dead, for with regard to the dead it is decreed that he be forgotten from the heart, but it is not so decreed with regard to the living (Bereishit Rabbah 84:20).
So his father wept for him—His father refers to Isaac: he wept for Jacob’s trouble, but he did not mourn for he knew that he (Joseph) was alive (Bereishit Rabbah 84:21).
20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him, but Mary stayed at the house.
21 Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22 Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies;
26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, even he who comes into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.”
29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to him.
30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met him.
31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they noticed that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw him, and fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled,
34 and asked, “Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Jesus wept.
36 So the Jews were saying, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead
38 So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.
39 Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”
Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes, and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
42 I knew that you always hear me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!”
44 The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth.
Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
The Plot to Kill Jesus
45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what he had done, believed in him.
Year B Gospel (Joh 12:20-33)
Jesus Predicts His Death
20 Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the festival; 21 these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see
Jesus.” 22 Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus.
23 And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. 25 He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
27 “Now my soul has become troubled; and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came out of heaven, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying an angel has spoken to him.
30 Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come for my sake, but for your sakes. 31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 But he was saying this to show the kind of death by which he was to die.
This work is a derivative of "The Rashi Chumash" and "The Rashi Ketuvim" by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein used under CC BY 3.0