Context

The raising of Lazarus is the last and most important of John’s ‘signs’. We overhear conversations with the disciples and with the dead man’s sisters and finally, Jesus’ authoritative command to Lazarus to ‘come out’.

Common thread: Free to believe? (John 11.1-45)

On this first Sunday of the Passion we read of a death and raising to life, Jesus’ final sign before he, himself, becomes the sign. The conversations surrounding the event provide a context of anguish and puzzlement for a denouement provoking belief in its witnesses, prefiguring the resurrection of Jesus himself.

An alternative thread for adults, From the depths, is based on Psalm 130.

These resources were first published in Issue 52 March/April 2011.