by the Rt. Rev. Kristin Uffelman White
In yesterday’s gospel passage, we saw Jesus, together with Lazarus’ family and friends and community, who all grieve the death of Lazarus. We saw Jesus call Lazarus forth from death in the tomb. Then we heard Jesus say to the community gathered, “unbind him, and let him go.”
It’s Jesus’ work, here, in conversation with the Father, to raise Lazarus from the dead: “Father,” he says, “I thank you for having heard me…but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” And then Lazarus comes forth, as Jesus has called him, alive once again. But he’s still covered in the wrappings of death. He’s still bound by the marks of the grave.
Jesus turns to the community, then, because their work, at his invitation, is to unbind Lazarus; it’s to let him go from the death that has enshrouded him through these last days.
What miracles has Jesus called forth within your own community? And what does he tell you now, as members of that community, to unbind?
