Unbind Them and Let Them Go
This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church for All Saints' Sunday, 11/7/21. The text was John 11:32-44.
Jesus and his disciples are in Bethany and Jesus is met by Lazarus’ sister, Mary, but earlier in chapter 11, Jesus learns of Lazarus’ illness, but purposely waits to go see Mary and Martha. He could have gone there as soon as he heard, but he waited so that they people would believe that the Father had sent him.
The first chapter of John’s gospel tells us, “…in him was life, and the life was the light of all people” (John 1:4). He is the very bread of life, the sustenance of life. Jesus is the bearer of and incarnation of life itself. Where do we find Jesus, the life, in today’s gospel? He goes to the place of death, to Lazarus’ tomb. Jesus, God’s light and life in the world goes to the place of death to work his miracle. The people of Jesus’ day would not expect a miracle there and neither would we.
There are times when we feel dead inside and grieve as Mary and Martha did. We feel alone. It is in those places of grief, sadness and loss that we find our Lord and Savior. He is there with us even when we don’t realize it. Even if we don’t ask for his presence, he’s there. Renaissance monk, Erasmus, came across this statement, “Bidden or not, God is here.” Whether we ask him to come to our aid or not, God comes to us.
In John’s gospel, miracles are signs from God. This one is a sign that Jesus was sent by God to show God’s glory and to give life. Lazarus in the cave with a stone covering the entrance prefigures Christ’s resurrection. Lazarus’ resuscitation symbolizes resurrection at the end of time. The words of Jesus have power over death.
Even at the beginning of the miracle, Jesus involves the crowd, asking them to “Take away the stone” (John 11:39). Jesus prays and as he does so, notice it’s a prayer of thanksgiving, making clear the restoration of Lazarus is not a magic trick performed by Jesus, but a blessing bestowed because of the alignment of the Son with the Father.
Jesus involves the crowd in the miracle with a secondary miracle. Lazarus was still bound in the grave clothes, like a mummy. The secondary miracle is how he got out. Jesus called out to the people to “Unbind him and let him go” (v. 44). Such involvement drives home what Jesus has done. They can see and touch and understand that Lazarus is alive. It’s not some trick.
Jesus speaks these last words not only to the crowd and the disciples, but to us. In holy baptism, God frees us from the rags of sin and death and dresses us in the royal clothing of Christ. In holy communion, we feast with God, the One who swallows up death forever. The last word is not death, but life as a beloved child of God.
We do not just individually commune with Christ and each other, but also with all those saints who have gone before us. The saints have died, yet they are alive! We commune with them as well. Imagine them gathered around the altar.
In John’s gospel, miracles are always signs that point beyond themselves, in this case, to someone else. As extraordinary as Lazarus’ raising was, we miss the point of the miracle if we miss the ultimate reality to which it points—the revelation of a death-destroying, life-giving God.
Not everyone responded favorable to this miracle however. Some believed, but others, the Jewish leadership of Jerusalem, came to realize just how dangerous Jesus is. This was the final straw for them and so it accelerates the plot to crucify Jesus.
When we think of All Saints, we think of those who have gone before us in the faith. Sometimes we relegate them to the category of those the church has called saints and to the heroes of scripture. Today, I want you to look around at the people sitting near you whether you are inside or outside. These too are saints. You are a saint. God is in relationship with you and calls you beloved.
This story promises that death does not have the last word, and so we are free to live now, to struggle now, to sacrifice now, to encourage others to never give up now, to live out of love rather than hate and to have their actions directed by hope rather than fear (David Lose).
Just as Jesus involved the people in the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, so God involves us all in his work today. A poem attributed to St. Teresa of Avila says:
Christ has no body but yours,
No
hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body…
— St. Teresa of Ávila (attributed)
We have our marching orders from Jesus, “Unbind your brothers and sisters and let them go! “
Amen!
Resources
David Ewart, holytextures.com
David Lose, davidlose.net
Marion Soards, Thomas Dozeman and Kendall McCabe, Preaching the Revised Common
Lectionary: Year B:After Pentecost 2
Gail Ramshaw, sundaysandsesaons.com
Sundaysandseasons.com
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