Unbind Him

Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’ Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’ John 11:30-44

Few us can say we were dead and brought back but most of us can remember a time when we were so bound up with grief, loss, hurt or betrayal that we were dead to the world, cocooned by pain and misery. In this passage from John we find Jesus among dear friends in the midst of great grief. They weep together, Jesus shows them all hoe broken he is by this great loss. Yet he does not stop there. Despite his critics and his friends, he calls Lazarus forth, renewing his life and setting him free. All of us are find ourselves bound up, unable to move forward. To all of us Jesus renews our lives and sets us free. May we have the courage to unbind and set free others.

Loving Creator, who weeps with those who mourn

you sit up in the nights with frightened parents

you stand and hold those who are wracked by grief

and seek out and free those who have been bound.

Some of us make our own chains and bindings

with our constant worry, fears and greediness

we entrap ourselves and one another in chains

and forget that you are in every prison we make.

Free us Lord, so we might serve all the people

unbind us to we might step out in faith and love

let all our prayers be focused on others' freedom

and may we know you hold us close in all our grief. Amen.