UNTIE HIM AND LET HIM GO

 

On this fifth Sunday of Lent, we read from the 11th chapter of John the death and rising of Lazarus. Lazarus is no stranger to Jesus. In fact, this is the family closest to Jesus that we learn about in His ministry. He must have taken many a day’s rest in the home of Lazarus’s sisters in Bethany in His travels to Jerusalem. Bethany was very close to Jerusalem. Jesus, wearied from travel and ministry, must have found much comfort in the home of this hospitable family.

News arrives that Lazarus, the one whom Jesus loved, was dead. In the Gospel story, our heart is rent with grief and we experience the heart of Jesus break as He hears the sad news. Jesus wept! Only here in this story do we feel as Jesus feels. The Son of God weeps for His friend who has fallen asleep. He prophesies that God will be glorified in this event — the rising of Lazarus from the dead.

At the command of Jesus, the dead man rises from the dead and comes out from the tomb. Jesus calls him to be stripped of the burial cloths and let him go. Jesus, the resurrection and the life, gives life to His friend. It is a prelude to His own death. Death will have no power over Him. Whereas Lazarus would have died again, Jesus has died and risen to life eternal. He is the first fruits of the dead. He gives us life everlasting.

We are all like Lazarus, one way or another, since we have sinned. All of us are bound up in the cloth of sin. Jesus comes to strip us of sin and give us new life. In Baptism, we have died to sin; death has no power over us. By living the Christian life, we have the assurance of life eternal.

As Lazarus was untied and unbound, so we, too, are set free from the grip of sin through the powerful words of Jesus.Fr. Brian Steele, MGL

 

Reflection Question:

What area of my life is bound up? Where does Jesus need to unbind me and set me free?

 

Lord, I believe You are the resurrection and the life. Free me from my sin so that I might live again. Amen.

 

St. Palladius, pray for us.