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LINK TO SCRIPTURE READINGS
So Jesus, deeply moved, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said,
“Lord, by now there will be a stench;
he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus replied,
“Did I not tell you that if you believe
you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone,
and Jesus raised his eyes, saying,
“Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know you always hear me, but I have
said this because of the crowd,
that they may believe that you sent me.”
Then he cried out in a loud voice,
“Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands,
his face wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
“Untie him and let him go.”
Now, many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
John 11:1-45
From what tombs is God inviting us to break free as Easter approaches? Though John's Gospel presents Lazarus of Bethany as a particular individual—the brother of Martha and Mary, the friend of Jesus—we can also see him as Everyman. In fact, the raising of Lazarus can be viewed not only as the raising of one man from the dead and as a foreshadowing of Jesus' own resurrection, but also as a reflection of God's desire for humanity. Life and life in abundance are themes that reverberate throughout the bible.
Just as Jesus summons Lazarus from out of his tomb, so God promises to open the graves of those who dwell in the Valley of Dry Bones, that place of death (Ezk 37:1-14). Though Ezekiel's words are directed at the House of Israel, they apply to all who feel spiritually dried up, hopeless, cut off from the land of the living:
"Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them... I will put my spirit in you that you may live" (Ezk 37:13-14).
God's passionate desire to raise humanity from a living death shines through this beautiful text. Despite the people's insolence and violence, despite their lack of faithfulness and their profaning of the Holy Name, yet God still longs to deliver them from ruin and desolation, to cleanse them from their idols and impurities, and to replace their hearts of stone with hearts of flesh instead.
Just as Jesus weeps over Lazarus, so God weeps over all who have forsaken the path of life, choosing the gilded path of destruction. Lazarus dies from physical illness; in contrast, the "living dead" are those who have sold their souls to gain the world, caring nothing for God, neighbor, the planet, or even their true selves. They are the "unholy fools" who build bigger and better barns to hoard their surplus while ignoring the beggars starving at their gates; they are the ones who eat, drink, and make merry while the Master is away, or intimidate their debtors, even as they themselves beg for forgiveness. They are the cheats and liars, the hypocrites and braggarts, the warmongers and self-righteous, the power seekers and betrayers, the entitled ones who turn their backs on God, deifying themselves.
And what about us? Are we bound like Lazarus in the tomb or free like Lazarus after Jesus unbinds him? Perhaps we are shackled by fear or by the desire to be in control. Or perhaps we are fettered by hatred, shrouded in deceit, chained by the desire to please others at any price, even at the cost of our souls. Maybe we are manacled by our refusal to see our own goodness...
The Risen Lord invites us to break free from our graves and to choose life— life in abundance, heaven in the here and now, the Kingdom of God that is here, there, and everywhere. And he calls us to that freedom of the Spirit which makes death— even death on a cross—the passage to new life.
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