Fifth Sunday in Lent
Text: John 11:1-45
The Rev. Dr. Sandy Selby
“Unbind him, and let him go!” This is the fourth consecutive Sunday that we have read from John’s gospel, in stories of increasing length, with 17 verses in chapter 3 on the Second Sunday of Lent, 37 verses on the Third Sunday, 41 on the Fourth Sunday, and 45 verses today. Whew! If nothing else, John is verbose! As lengthy as the stories from John’s gospel may be, they are important for us to hear. As we journey to the cross with Jesus this season of Lent, these are stories of transformation.
Three weeks ago, we heard of Jesus’ conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night. During their conversation about being born again of the Spirit, Jesus told Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (3:16). Nicodemus then went off into the night, but we learn, at the end of John’s gospel, that Nicodemus in time had been “unbound” from that which was holding him back from being transformed by the power of God’s love. Ultimately, Nicodemus joined Joseph of Arimethea in taking Jesus down from the cross and burying him in the tomb. “For God so loved the world….”
“Unbind him, and let him go!” We next found Jesus in Samaria, going to Jacob’s well, and waiting for someone to come give him a drink of water. At noon, in the heat of the day, a Samaritan woman who was an outcast in her community, arrived. There, she heard of the living water that Jesus offers. “Give me that water!” she said. Then, gulping down the living water from Jesus, she was “unbound” from her shame and disgrace, and transformed—as were those in the city to whom she testified, who then came to follow Jesus. “For God so loved the world….”
“Unbind him, and let him go!” We next found Jesus near the Temple in Jerusalem, where he encountered a man who was born blind. “His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” According to the prevailing theology in those days, the man or his parents must have done something wrong; he deserved to be blind! But Jesus didn’t see it that way. Kneeling down, he spat on the ground, made mud and spread it on the man’s eyes, healing him of his blindness. Many in the crowd were so captive to their judgement of the man who, in their opinion, deserved to be blind, that they themselves were blind to the grace of God in their midst that had “unbound” the man of his blindness, giving him sight, and bringing him to believe that Jesus was the son of God. Reflecting on these stories, one commentator says:
[These individuals] lived in places and times far from ours, but we have have much in common with them. We are smart, but not nearly as smart as we think. So, like he did with Nicodemus, Jesus teaches us. We are thirsty, longing for something that will satisfy. And Jesus, like he did with the Samaritan woman, gives us Living Water. We have blind spots which keep us from fully seeing God, ourselves, and others. As he did with the beggar born blind, Jesus opens our eyes.
“For God so loved the world…”
“Unbind him, and let him go!” We meet Jesus, today, in Bethany, where he is met by Martha, who is grieving the death of her brother, Lazarus. “Lord," she said, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Then, in a statement of faith, Martha said, “But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
Jesus does not say, I will bring resurrection at some distant time in the future. He says, I am resurrection here and now. I bring you life, today! Jesus asked Martha, Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”She went to get her sister Mary, who came to Jesus, knelt at his feet and said, as her sister had said,“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw that Mary, and those who were with her, were weeping, he was deeply moved, and, John says, “Jesus began to weep.” Other translations of the gospel simply say, “Jesus wept.” And while this may be the shortest verse in the Bible, it is certainly significant for us, today.
“Unbind him, and let him go.” “Jesus wept.” When those around Jesus saw him weeping, they said, “See how he loved him.” Jesus knows that resurrection is about to happen, that Lazarus will arise and walk out of the tomb. And still—he weeps. His tears of grief are a sign of love, not a lack of faith. His tears in the face of the pain of loss are both an example for us to imitate, and a source of consolation, because in his compassion Jesus enters into and affirms human suffering. Jesus shows us that God does not stand off in the distance, away from our sorrow. God stands beside us, weeping along with us.
To quote the 4th-century monk, Evagrius, we need to “pray for the gift of tears to soften the heart.” On a similar note, the 17th century poet and Anglican priest John Donne said, “All tears have this degree of good in them, that they are all some kind of argument of good nature, of a tender heart, and the Holy Spirit loves to work in wax, and not in marble.” And so we pray to Jesus to “unbind” us from locking our hearts away behind a wall of stone.
“For God so loved the world…”
Jesus then comes to the tomb, which is a cave with a stone lying against it. He tells those around him, “Take away the stone.” Martha protests, saying that Lazarus has been dead four days, and “already there is a stench.” Jesus replies that if they believe that the resurrection and life that Jesus offers is possible, they will see the glory of God. Being open to that hope, they take away the stone. Jesus then prays, offering thanksgiving to God for what is about to be revealed.
Then Jesus 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 the crowd, “Unbind him, and let him go.” And note this: Jesus did not remove the burial cloths from Lazarus. Nor did Lazarus himself. It took the community to unbind Lazarus and set him free.
That is true for us, today. Jesus calls us, as his followers, to work together to “unbind” those around us from that which holds them in bondage, whether it be the bondage of poverty, the bondage of hunger, the bondage of racism, the bondage of oppression, or the bondage of despair. As a community of followers of Jesus, we are called to do his work of unbinding those who through injustice or misfortune are held in bondage, today.
“Unbind him, and let him go!” John tells us, in the next chapter, that several days later, Jesus returned to the home of Lazarus, along with his disciples. John says, “There they gave a dinner for Jesus. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” (Jn 12:1-3) The One who is the resurrection and the life, is celebrating with the one he loves, the one he has resurrected, and given new life.
“Unbind us, and let us go.” This story is about you and me. It is about the places in our lives that we have sealed away, behind a wall of stone. A relationship that is broken. A grief that won’t go away. A community that is crying out for help because people are hungry, and children are dying from gun violence. A world that seems to be cascading into chaos.
To those griefs and hurts and disappointments that we have sealed away, Jesus says: “Come out,” calling us to choose resurrection and life from what may feel like death. The raising of Lazarus does not eliminate sorrow and suffering. In fact, it incites the plot that leads to Jesus’ own death. But, the raising of Lazarus does reveal that love, not death, has the last word. The One who stands before the tomb and weeps is also the One who calls life forth from the grave, saying to us, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
“For God so loved the world…” God loves it, still, and will, to eternity.
Amen.
[1] Peter Nafzger, Lent 5A, 1517.org.
[2] John Donne, “Jesus Wept.”Sermon XIII, Lent 1, http://www.biblestudytools.com/classics/the-works-of-john-donne-vol-1/sermon-xiii.html?p=4.