Triumphant Suffering Love

Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, February 22, 2022

The week of the seventh Sunday after the Epiphany

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ 35Jesus began to weep.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 949)

AM Psalm [120], 121, 122, 123; PM Psalm 124, 125, 126, [127]

Prov. 4:1-27; 1 John 4:7-21; John 11:30-44

Today we celebrate the Feast of Margaret of Cortana. (See below.)

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Office Gospel, John 11:30-44

30Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ 35Jesus began to weep. 36So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ 37But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’ 38Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.’ 40Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

David’s Reflections

The poet wrote:

Nothing is left unwon,

By Love that suffers. *

In today’s Gospel, Jesus converses with the grieving sisters, Mary and Martha, of his dear friend Lazarus and finds himself pulled into their grief. He weeps with them. Two verses after we learn of his weeping, John says “Jesus, again greatly disturbed. . . . “ Jesus bristled at the suffering of his friend Lazarus and at the grief of Lazarus’ sisters.

What a window into the inner life of Jesus. Repeatedly, the Gospels say Jesus had compassion, that he was motivated to act by the stirring of his care for the suffering and need he saw. Today’s terse phrase, “Jesus began to weep,” gives us a most graphic and intense description of that compassion. Here we encounter a truly human person, one whose emotional life was alive and well, who was fully present with others and shared their pain, who did not withdraw to protect himself from their distress.

What a window into the nature of God. As Jesus drew near Lazarus’ tomb, God has drawn near us. God became vulnerable to our existence, our suffering, our rejection by God’s son being enfleshed in the life of Jesus. As this same Gospel put it in 1:14, “the Word became a human being and dwelt among us.”

Jesus’ response to Lazarus reveals God’s response to our dilemma, our vulnerability to sin, suffering, and death. In Jesus God comes to us in love and has compassion. God’s love suffers and wins us. That same love has fought and prevailed for us. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection triumphed over our evil with saving love and conquered death itself. We share in Jesus’ victory over sin and death. Lazarus’ resurrection becomes ours, a preview of God’s winning love that follows us into and through the tomb to new life and new possibilities.

Nothing is left unwon,

By Love that suffers. *

Erik Gustaf Geijer, cited by Gustaf Aulen, The Drama and the Symbols, trans. Sidney Linton (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1970), p. 177.

Collect of the Day, Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany

O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 216)

Today we celebrate the Feast of Margaret of Cortana, monastic (died 22 Feb 1297 CE).

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Margaret_Cortona.html

Collect of the Feast of Margaret of Cortana

Grant, O God, to all your people, as to your servant Margaret of Cortona, the spirit of repentance and supplication, that we might seek and desire nothing in this transitory life above you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Collect for Peace

Most holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen. (BCP, 123)

A Prayer of Self-Dedication

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated to you; and then use us, we pray thee, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 832-33)

A Collect for Early Evening

O Lord God Almighty, as you have taught us to call the evening, the morning, and the noonday one day; and have made the sun to know its going down: Dispel the darkness of our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 100)