Sister Eloise Rosenblatt

The account of Lazarus’ revival from the tomb includes John’s version of Jesus’ fear of his own death. In the synoptic Gospels this terror is described as the agony in the garden, on the eve of his arrest, crucifixion and death.

It’s probably not historically exact: The scenic image of Mary setting out alone from Nazareth astride a donkey, concerned to visit her older cousin, six-months pregnant Elizabeth, in the hilly village of Ain Kerem, outside Jerusalem. The journey, straight as the crow flies, is 65 miles or 104 kilometers. In Mary’s day, the road would have detoured along the western edge of Israel, closer to the Mediterranean, to avoid passing directly through unfriendly Samaria. No single woman – old or young – would have traveled four or five days alone, exposed to danger like the man who fell victim to thieves, memorialized in Luke’s parable of the good samaritan.

In Numbers, Moses feels overwhelmed by his responsibilities for a restive people in the desert. He begs God for help. God’s response could have been thunder and lightning, to awe the Israelites into submission, so they would stop complaining or interfering, and passively surrender to Moses’ decision-making.