Monday of Holy Week
Isaiah 42:1-7 · Psalm 27 · John 12:1-11
Psalm 27 begins with a bold confession:
“The Lord is my light and my salvation.”
Today we see those words come to life in a small house in Bethany.
Not long before, that house had known grief.
Lazarus had died.
Friends had gathered. Tears had fallen. A stone had closed the tomb.
But everything changed when Jesus came.
At his voice the dead man walked out of the grave.
And so tonight the house is filled not with mourning but with joy.
Instead of a funeral meal there is a dinner.
Martha serves.
Lazarus sits at the table with Jesus.
The man who had been dead now shares a meal among the living.
The psalmist once said:
“I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
Lazarus has seen it with his own eyes.
Four days in the tomb did not have the final word.
When the Lord called,
“Lazarus, come out,”
death stepped aside.
Life returned.
During the meal another quiet moment unfolds.
Mary approaches Jesus.
She carries a jar of costly perfume.
Without speaking she pours it over his feet and wipes them with her hair.
The fragrance fills the house.
Some see waste.
Jesus sees something deeper.
Mary has understood what others have not.
She prepares him for the hour that is coming.
Because the man who called Lazarus from the grave is walking toward his own.
Long before this night, the prophet Isaiah had spoken of a mysterious servant.
A servant chosen by God.
A light for the nations.
One who would open blind eyes and lead prisoners out of darkness.
The Gospel tells those stories.
Blind people begin to see.
The possessed are set free.
The dead rise again.
But these signs are pointing toward something greater.
A final victory over sin, evil, and death itself.
That victory will come through the cross.
The cross— which will become the tree of life.
Yet the most surprising figure in this Gospel scene says nothing at all.
Lazarus.
He speaks no words.
He preaches no sermon.
He simply sits at the table with Jesus.
Alive.
And that is enough.
People look at him and believe.
Because Lazarus himself is the message.
A man once trapped by death now sharing life with the Lord.
An early Christian teacher, Saint Irenaeus, once said:
“The glory of God is a human person fully alive.”
In Bethany that glory sits at the table.
And the world is still waiting to see it again—
in the lives of those who follow Christ.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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© 2025 Krakus.
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial).