LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Grace and Truth (4)
When the man born blind is healed, a real gale is unleashed in the religious environment of Jerusalem. Jesus is accused of being an impostor, who does not observe the law or the tradition of the elders.
However, the truth of God is proclaimed through the mouth of that man, until yesterday a pariah of society, now a thorn that wounds the untouchable class of the Pharisees. That man whom they reject, he tells them, is a "God-fearing" man who "has come from God". The Pharisees could not stand him and expelled him from the synagogue.
The Lord finds him later, and reveals Himself to him, adding: "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be blinded". The formerly blind now see and those who presumed to see are stripped of their blindness. Before the Lord appeared it seemed the other way around, that the blind were blind and the Pharisees saw. But that was only an appearance.
Thus is fulfilled what Simeon had prophesied before Mary, holding the child Jesus in her arms: "This one will be set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that will be contradicted ... that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed" (Luke 2:34-35). Some fall and others are lifted up; the thoughts of the hearts are revealed. It is the truth that enlightens.
In the episode of the Good Shepherd, the Lord brings to light the truth about shepherds. The Pharisees thought they were shepherds of Israel, but they were only hirelings. "The true shepherd", the Lord tells them, "is the one who lays down his life for the sheep"; not those who profit from the sheep, but those who serve them to the point of laying down their lives for them. From then on, this will be the true mark of the true shepherds.
With the death of Lazarus, it is clear that the friends of the Lord, however intimate they may be, cannot escape death. They too have an incurable disease, they too must die, if they wish to glorify the Lord. They lie at the Lord's table, they hear from his lips the secrets of the kingdom, but they too are children of Adam, and they too must die.
This is the subjective part of Romans 6, for the objective truths of the Word must become flesh. Just as the Word became flesh in Jesus Christ, it must also become incarnate in those who belong to Christ. John 11, with the episode of Lazarus, shows us how God prepares the day when we have to pass through death to go out to resurrection. When that happens, the Lord is truly glorified, and Mary's perfume bottle can be broken so that the whole house is filled with the aroma of pure nard.
The truth is that Lazarus is of no use if he does not pass through death; the grace lies in the fact that Lazarus will not remain in the grave, but will again sit at table with the Lord to the delight and amazement of all who love him.