We gather together today poised on the cusp of Passiontide.

Today in the Catholic tradition, many of our churches have covered their statues and crucifixes with purple veils in preparation for the final fortnight of Lent. This action is a powerful reminder that, helpful though we might find those external images for the rest of the year, at the centre of our faith is an interior mystery that can only be grasped by the heart alone.

The cloth is unadorned, and the purple is the colour of mourning, creating a sombre atmosphere that leads us deeper into reflection on the suffering and death of Jesus.

The crucifix is uncovered on Good Friday when all eyes will be on the cross alone. The full splendour of the decoration remains hidden or veiled until the Easter Vigil when it can help once again to fill our hearts with the joy of the resurrection.

Throughout Lent we have been invited to journey with Jesus and witness key moments in his teaching and healing ministry.

Today we begin to glimpse where it is all leading. The sisters Mary and Martha send a message to Jesus from Bethany saying ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ Bethany is just two miles away from Jerusalem and everyone connected to Jesus knows that the authorities there are seeking to kill him. It is a time for making choices.

When Jesus waits only two days then declares that he is going up to Judea again to ‘awaken’ Lazarus, it is Thomas who says what everyone else is surely thinking: ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’ As we will see again in the upper room after the resurrection, Thomas’ faith is strong, but conditional. He is willing to be a martyr, to follow Jesus unto death, but he struggles to imagine any meaning for this sacrifice beyond that which he can see for himself. It is little wonder then, perhaps, that Jesus is prepared to gift Thomas with his very own conversation about the nature of belief after the resurrection. Faith may demand a willingness to die, yes, but Jesus wants his followers to understand that above all else he is about bringing life – even if that life lies beyond the grave.

What follows, as Jesus approaches the home of three of his closest friends in Bethany, is one of the richest narratives in the Gospels drawing us into the human heart of Jesus. Martha, the theologian, engages in discussion with Jesus. Coming out to meet him she argues the toss. Like Thomas, she declares her trust in Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died…’ but she risks a little more faith, ‘even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.’ This conversation between Jesus and Martha develops the church’s theology. Martha can assert the Jewish eschatological belief, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ But then she, and all the disciples listening, hear the new teaching of Jesus, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me… shall never die.’ Jesus does ask for assent: ‘Do you believe this?’

I like to imagine Martha drawing a deep breath but then declaring, ‘Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.’

Mary, the mystic, remains seated in the house. Hers is an attitude of total trust. She has both faith in Jesus to restore her brother and faith in her sister, Martha, to find the words to ask. Jesus calls for Mary and she weeps before him.

The weeping of women has always moved Jesus. Remember the Widow of Nain and Mary Magdalene in the garden. He responds on every occasion with compassion. He understands the deep distress of loss and mourning. And he was not afraid to share his own tears publicly. Jesus, in that moment, feels his own loss. As the onlookers invite him to come and see where Lazarus is laid in the tomb, the full reality of death overcomes him, and we have famously the shortest verse in the Bible and one of the most poignant: ‘Jesus wept.’

Where do you place yourself in this story at this moment?

There are many options to choose from: Thomas, Mary or Martha, Lazarus in the tomb, the travelling companions of Jesus (the men or the women), or the mourners from Bethany? Or with Jesus himself who in the moment of deepest pain and sorrow revealed God’s power to raise us from the dead?

What choices do you face in your own discipleship at the current time and where might you be being invited to place your trust in Jesus’ power to act in your life as never before?

As we approach this Holy Week, let us have faith together with Ezekiel, the prophet who saw the Lord put sinews and flesh on dry bones and breathe new life into them, and who reassures us, ‘I have spoken and I will do it, declares the Lord.’