“Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

The major theme for this 5^th Sunday of Lent continues to focus on God’s invitation for our ever-deepening conversion during this Lenten season, to repent our sins, to embrace God’s holy life, to live and share God’s compassionate and merciful love to all. Only He is and can give us the “life eternal” for those who truly believe and follow Him, granting us the unending joy of our existence, salvation, fulfillment, and peace.

As we reflect on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the upcoming Holy Week and of our own, the themes of death and resurrection underlie today’s scriptural lessons. There are different perspectives about death.

(1) Atheists believe that at death one ceases to exist. There is no afterlife or eternal soul that continues in eternity.

(2) The Eastern and New Age religions that hold to a pantheistic worldview teach that one goes through an endless cycle of reincarnation until the cycle is broken, and the person becomes one with the divine. What a person becomes in the next life depends on the quality of life lived in the previous one. When the person unites with the divine, he ceases to exist as an individual, but becomes part of the divine life force, like a drop of water returning to the ocean.

(3) The animistic or tribal religions believe that after death the human soul remains on the earth and travels to join the departed spirits of the ancestors in the underworld, the realm of the shadows, wandering eternally in darkness, experiencing neither joy nor sorrow.

(4) Islam teaches that at the end of history, God will judge the works of all people. Those whose good deeds outweigh their bad ones will enter paradise. The rest will be consigned to hell.

(5) But for us, Christians, death is not something to be feared for two reasons: the resurrection of Christ and the testimony of God's Word. Death has lost its sting through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has won the victory over death. Therefore, to live in this world means we exist in a foreign country, waiting and hoping to return to our true homeland in heaven by God’s grace. 

God does not want us holding a relationship of Transaction but Transformation. Therefore, Dynamic Christian disciples are those who (1) BELIEVE, (2) GROW, (3) SERVE, (4) LOVE and (5) LEAD others to Jesus. Today’s topic invites us to work with the Holy Spirit to imitate and follow our savior Jesus Christ in this Lenten season who alone is the true “life” and can give us the eternal life of His salvation, to repent our sins, to exercise our Christian stewardship, to use our time, treasure, and talents to love God above all and to love our neighbors as ourselves, participating in the works of mercy, to accomplish God’s will in our lives to glorify God. 

How can we leave our sinful life behind, and live a new holy life for Christ?