"Jesus Gets Emotional" - 5th Sunday of Lent Homily

John chapter 11, Jesus gets emotional.

John 11 · chapter mention

That could be the headline, the story I read.

We hear emotional language in relation to Jesus here like nowhere else.

He became perturbed, deeply troubled.

He wept, perturbed again.

It's a highly emotional scene for him.

It's documented that way to show them, the scene and us, that he is fully human.

and he experiences emotions just like you and me.

And he gets angry.

He got angry.

Just like you and me.

And there's two big reasons for this scene being so emotional for him.

First, it involves a serious matter of illness and death with his good friend Lazarus.

And related to his sisters Martha and Mary.

So it's emotionally charged already.

But there's a bigger reason.

A bigger point, a bigger theme going on in this whole scene about resurrection, which is of paramount importance to his mission.

While we have this as a third scrutiny, people who are preparing for coming into the church and right away in baptism and the Eucharist and confirmation entering into his

death and resurrection, as we all do in every sacrament.

And he's getting upset because no one's paying attention.

It seems as though he's a little dismissive of the situation.

He's told about Lazarus, like, I'll get there, see you in a few days, whatever.

And then Lazarus dies, and they're like, where were you?

We called for you, and you took two more days doing whatever.

And if you had been here, our brother would not have died.

I that's the way he shows up.

But from the start, he says,

The Son of God may be glorified through this whole scene.

This whole thing is for the glory of God, and it's not going end in death.

So, in fairness to him, he's saying there's something common.

Trust me.

And no one's trusting.

He even talks to Martha.

This incredible situation, she proclaims him as the Christ.

How often does that happen in the Gospel?

Hardly ever.

And she is convinced he's the resurrection of life.

Your brother will rise.

But then she's like, but he is dead.

Where were you?

So he's getting perturbed.

He's getting distressed.

And perturbed again.

Deeply troubled.

And he gets angry.

And you and I can totally identify with this.

And I guess for me, would be like, last five years, if I've been teaching on the Eucharist as much as I have, and no one's listening, I get angry.

And Father Vincent would probably say, why do keep putting holes in the wall of the rectory, while breaking your golf club?

Like, they're not getting it.

They're not listening.

You and I get angry, and it normally leads to sin.

Jesus Christ gets angry.

And he performs a miracle.

which he promised the whole time.

said, God will be glorified through this.

And then it happened.

But he also went to the depths in his heart with these emotions.

He summoned all this energy and effort and love to the Father in prayer.

And the Father heard his prayer from the depths of his being involving his good friends.

And the Father heard his prayer, which Jesus had promised the entire time.

Again, separation from you and me.

We plead to God in desperation.

But imagine having that hope, that confidence entering a scene like this that God will act.

God will intervene.

God will do something great here.

Part of the you and I getting angry and leading to sin is that we doubt that it's going to end in injustice or in the wrong.

It's going to end in evil.

But having that confidence of Christ, that God will win out.

That anger will dissipate.

Jesus is governed by the virtue of meekness, which helps control anger.

I think it works in concert with this hope.

You and I can grow in hope and grow in trust and confidence in God.

and that helps to control that anger.

But for us to imitate, I telling people all lent to study the gospel, to see where Jesus gets angry, how did he deal with it in his human nature?

And here it's like at the highest level, because he's really bothered by what's going on and then gives that to the Father, and the Father then works a miracle.

So not only did it not lead to sin, it led to something great and good.

This also gives us insight into how Jesus deals with us.

when we perturb him, which we do, when we go into that tomb spiritually through mortal sin.

I have perturbed him many times in my life.

And again, that his anger is treated by the meekness which turns it into compassion and patience.

And then when we invite him into the tomb, allah confession

Then it becomes mercy, which he had on Lazarus, which he promised would happen the whole time.

We had some of our faith formation students this morning going to confession.

And I made a joke with the teachers afterwards, like they're like, Lazarus come out of the tomb.

I mean, I talk about the confessional being a tomb a lot.

Mainly, come out of the confession, like Jesus come out of the tomb.

It's new life.

Lazarus come out of the tomb, it's new life.

And the teachers said they all came out smiling.

The joy of freedom.

It really is folks, similar to I absolve your sins to Lazarus come out.

Come out of your sin for us.

Be untied with the bands of sin.

That's what he wants to do.

That's what he came to do.

To free us.

To give us new life and to give us that joy.

He might sound a little off in this episode, but my gosh, he has proven true by the end.

Something no one had never seen before.

Resurrection.

Imagine if you had me come to a family funeral or prayer service at the funeral home, and I was saying the whole time, he's going to come out of the casket, just give him a second,

it's going to happen, they're like, crazy.

That's kind of what he's promising.

but he has that confidence that you and I need to have than the worst situations that really take us to the core of our being, even in those, especially in those, to have that

confidence that God will act.