Today’s Gospel, the dramatic raising of Lazarus from the dead, is packed with many extraordinary and provocative details to pray and reflect upon as we go deeper into the Lenten season. In my reflection, I will highlight three lines from the passage.
Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. While the raising of Lazarus is a high-profile example of Jesus’ divinity, what I love most about this passage is its full display of Jesus’ humanity. We see Jesus’ in close and interdependent relationships with his best friends where his love and devotion to them are obvious by his words and actions. By spending time in their home and being involved in their lives on a day-to-day basis, we see the intimacy and familiarity he shares with Martha and Mary and Lazarus. I love that Martha feels comfortable enough with Jesus to chastise him. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” It has always sort of bothered me that Jesus took two days to get there after he heard of Lazarus’ death but Martha clearly has more trust in Jesus than I do for she is accepting and expresses her confidence in Jesus when she says, “But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”
Jesus wept. I find Jesus’ emotional openness to be a profound source of comfort. Again, Jesus’ full humanity is shown to us. The image of Jesus standing amongst his people, openly weeping, entering fully into the human condition, is extremely powerful. These two words communicate volumes about Jesus’ extraordinary mercy. The reason he begins to weep is because he sees Martha and her friends crying because of Lazarus’ death. He shares in their pain and experiences their sense of loss and their grief touches him deeply, so much so that he, too, is brought to tears. In Thomas Merton’s beautiful reflection about his brother’s death, there is a poignant line that says, “…and Christ weeps in the ruins of my Spring.” And indeed, it is true. Jesus still stands amongst his people, in the pain and ruins of our lives, openly weeping with all those who suffer and mourn.
Unbind him and set him free. I have a treasured photo taken some years ago in Jerusalem. In the photo, I am ducking as I climb out of the small opening of a cave that historians mark as Lazarus’ tomb. Visiting the site, you cannot help but imagine Lazarus coming out of the tomb, squinting in the sunlight, still bandaged up in his burial cloths, dazed from hearing Jesus’ say, “Unbind him and set him free.” But climbing out of Lazarus’ tomb that day, I realized that these words have another meaning for all of us who struggle to turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. We need to ask Jesus to unbind us in the here and now so we can be set free from all the distractions that stand in the way of loving God with our whole heart and mind and loving our neighbor as ourselves.
May the God who loves us and weeps with us, unbind us and set us free so we may enter more fully into our Lenten observances of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting which in turn, will lead us to a deeper union with Jesus.