John 12: 1-11

 John 12: 1-11 

Jesus returns for dinner to the place where he has raised Lazarus from the dead. It is informative that we hear nothing of Lazarus' comments of what happened to him while he was dead. In fact we never hear anything from people who came back to life about what it was like to be dead. In all the scripture about a half dozen people come back to life from the dead and not one word is given to us about them moving toward a light, or whom they met, or their warm safe feelings.   At this dinner is Lazarus who was recently dead and Jesus who soon we'll be dead.  Of all occasions to talk about what it is like to be dead we would think this is the time. But not a single word about life on the other side.

What we do have is the description of the life of the living. Martha is serving. Martha gets a bad rap because on one occasion she got a little bent out of shape about the distribution of labor.  But that notwithstanding this was a woman of great faith and love, who demonstrated that love by serving. Mary is there, she is more contemplative and expresses her love symbolically in the sacrifice of the nard perfume. We see Judas grasping and trying to find a way to work this to his advantage. His heart already turned; he was intending to betray Jesus. We see a description of people living on this side of the grave but not a word about what is on the other side.  

By all means we need to prepare for the end of our lives. We will one day be there on the other side. But what we see on the occasion  of this dinner is people living lives.  The way we prepare for life after death is by living and paying attention to how we live here and now.

“Lord, help me prepare for eternity by the way I live my everyday life. AMEN”