Jesus Wept: Fifth Sunday of Lent
Call To Action's 2023 Lenten Calendar is a collaboration between the Anti-Racism Team (ART) and Indigenous Solidarity Collective. This calendar provides more than 40 days of prayer and study to guide our discernment of racial justice and lead us into solidarity with Indigenous communities. For each Sunday and holy day during Lent, we'll publish a reflection from an ART or Indigenous Solidarity Collective member. Following the reflection, we’ll feature a call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada as well as discussion questions for your own meditation.
Fifth Sunday of Lent: March 26, 2023
“I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the Lord.
I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.”
Lord, it is difficult to convey the breadth, depth, and significance of a place.
While sitting in the basement of our grandmother’s church, Mount Pisgah Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME) on Park Avenue, in the Orange Mound neighborhood of Memphis, Tennessee, I trembled. Orange Mound is the first neighborhood built by and for Black people in the United States. Founded in the 1890s on the former land of Deaderick Plantation, the neighborhood hummed with the life of long friendships and strong families, the maroon and gold vibrancy of the school that educated generations, and the aroma of Bradley’s hot dogs and barbecue on outdoor pits.
Our father’s name is Dedrick. Although he was born just over the line in Casey, Mississippi, I’ve always wondered if our grandmother named him after those white people and that plantation.
I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the Lord. I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord (Ez 37:12-14).
Our grandmother’s sister, Aunt Carlee, brought me to Sunday School. And in this basement, we, a huddled mass of six-year-olds, sat side by side on chairs. The teacher told us, "I want each of you to recite a Bible verse. We’ll go around the room."
I knew the Sign of the Cross, the Hail Mary, and the Our Father. I did not know the meaning of "Bible verse," nor that that last one was actually several Bible verses. My blood ran cold. As I choked, my heart racing to full arrest, the little girl next to me leaned over and said: "Just say, 'Jesus wept.'" (Our Cousin Natalie recalls now: "That had to be Linda Jackson! She was kind like that!" ) All these six-year-olds sounded so adept and sure.
I managed to croak: Jesus wept (Jn 11:35). I know what He did for me in that grave moment and place with Linda Jackson’s kindness.
For with the Lord is kindness, and with him is plenteous redemption (Ps 130:7).
That basement was not my final encounter with this shortest verse of the Bible. Years later, I learned why Jesus wept. Lazarus’ rising from four days in the tomb is the last of seven healings in Jesus’ public ministry before all that leads to the glory of His resurrection and the promise of ours. In a final encounter with Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, only recorded in the Gospel of John, Jesus wept.
Both Martha’s and Mary’s first words to Jesus were: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died (Jn 11:21, 32).
Martha proffered belief in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus disclosed His divinity. Martha stands in faith and witnesses the promise of the resurrection, the giant reveal of Christ. Practicality, faith, and blessed assurance. He wept only when confronted by the grief His dalliance caused Mary and her friends. Imagine Mary, her spirit betrayed. Four days weeping because her brother was now beyond her words, her care; the care that she had shown Jesus. After all, Mary had anointed him with perfume and wiped his feet. He had to remember her loving kindness.
Surely, Mary's wail was an agonizing one—the words loud, halting, and tumbling. A wail like those you hear in newsreels from war-torn countries, natural disasters, or right here in your parish.
The doors to the sanctuary opened. At the first note from the piano, the eighty-five-year-old mother let out a wail: "Willie Mae.” Calling her only child back from death. In that place, at that moment, for this pain, there was no blessed assurance.
If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you (Rom 8: 11).
Lazarus’ name means God helps. This passage, whether performance art for all its human interactions or psychodrama for the array of emotions displayed, models God helps. Lazarus was healed, not resurrected. We gained the promise of resurrection.
But, that must wait…
—This Fifth Sunday reflection was written by Debra Brittenum. Debra is currently a member of CTA’s Vision Council and Anti-Racism Team.
Discussion Questions
What caused Jesus to weep? What considerations did Jesus employ in response to Lazarus’ illness?
What considerations are greater than the demands of radical love?
What actions can resisters employ to make evident radical love in the face of institutional indifference, racism, and oppression?
Suggestions for Almsgiving
As part of your Lenten practice, please consider donating to one or more of the following organizations:
About the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Between 2007 and 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada recorded the testimonies of more than 6,000 First Nations people across Canada either directly or indirectly affected by the residential school system. In June 2015, the commission released a final report with 94 calls to action directed at the Canadian government. The final 52 calls to action focus on reconciliatory policy implementation for the dismantling of systemic racism against Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
Call to Action 77
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
77. We call upon provincial, territorial, municipal, and community archives to work collaboratively with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to identify and collect copies of all records relevant to the history and legacy of the residential school system, and to provide these to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
