Bound and Unbound
a sermon based on John 11:1-45
by Randy L Quinn 

Throughout Lent we’ve been reading from John’s Gospel.  And as we have seen and heard, many of the stories in John are lengthy.  Today’s follows the same pattern, so again I will not ask you to stand while I read it, but will instead invite you to follow along using the pew Bibles.  (You can find today’s text on page 760.)

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As with most of the stories in John’s Gospel, you can be sure that what we see and hear in a literal reading of the text is only part of the story.  John uses metaphor and symbolism to make points that cannot be understood from a literal viewpoint.

·        As we heard three weeks ago, Nicodemus didn’t understand what Jesus meant when he was talking about being born again (Jn 3).

·        Then two weeks ago, we met the woman at the well who didn’t quite understand what Jesus meant by living water (Jn 4).

·        Last week, there was confusion because a blind man could see things that people with perfect eyesight didn’t see (Jn 9).

So we ought not be surprised if we find some of the same thing going on in our text for today.  Jesus is talking about resurrection, and people around him are thinking about resuscitation.

And when Martha speaks about “Resurrection”, she is thinking about the ultimate Resurrection that will happen at the end of time when all the dead will be raised.  Jesus, on the other hand, is speaking about the new life that begins with today, a Resurrection that affects the way we live now.

It’s important to remember that Lazarus is not the only person who has ever been resuscitated.  There are several stories of people being raised from the dead in the scriptures, from the widow’s son at Zarephath that Elijah restored to life to the story of Eutychus who was raised by Paul (1 Kg 17:22 & Acts 20:10).  In between them are several other Biblical accounts of the dead being raised.

There are also several other stories from the ancient world of people being raised from the dead; there are stories of poor medical diagnoses resulting in false death announcements being made; and more recently we’ve all heard about events referred to as “near death experiences.”

There were enough accounts of someone appearing to be dead, in fact, that a tradition developed around waiting with a recently deceased person in case they awoke before the funeral – a tradition that became known as a ‘wake’.

The differences between those stories and the story of Lazarus, however, are striking.  The most telling may be the fact that Jesus waits until he is buried four days before raising him.  This is not just a comma that was mistaken for a death.  Despite Jesus’ use of the euphemism, Lazarus is not just sleeping (Jn 11:13).

He is dead.  Long dead.  Stinking dead.

Most of the resuscitation stories occur shortly after the person has died, and none of them had been called forth from the grave.  Lazarus, on the other hand, was wrapped in burial cloths when he was raised.

Another notable difference of this particular story is the long-term impact.  In none of the Biblical accounts of people being raised do we know how the person who was raised was affected – not even the story of Lazarus includes a follow up visit.  But this story leads directly to the death of Jesus.

In the paragraphs that follow this story, John recounts how the raising of Lazarus was so disconcerting that a plot began to put Jesus to death (Jn 11:53).  The long-term consequence of Lazarus being raised from the dead is the death of Jesus.

It’s as if Jesus is offering life to Lazarus, by substituting his dead body for that of Lazarus.  One dead man for another dead man.  Only we know that Jesus was raised to eternal life, a truth we will celebrate in just two weeks as we gather for Easter services.

Unlike all the other people who were raised from the dead, Jesus does not die again.  He lives on in glory.

Jesus seems to know that will happen.  And whether Jesus knows or not, I believe John wants us to know that the life Lazarus received is only partial.  It cannot be made complete until Jesus is raised and offers him a new kind of life, a new quality of life, a life that has no end.

All of that became clear to me when I tried to visualize Lazarus walking out of the tomb wrapped in his burial cloths.  It made me think of a scene from a low budget horror movie, perhaps, as he walked stiff legged out of the tomb.

And Jesus says, “unbind him and set him free” (Jn 11:44).

Unbind him and set him free?

I always thought Jesus had set him free by calling him out of the tomb.

I always thought that death had the ultimate hold on Lazarus and Jesus broke its cords so that Lazarus could be free.

But here I found an interesting twist to the story; a twist that I think is important to recognize; a twist that is not apparent in any of the other resuscitation stories.  Lazarus may have been raised from the dead, but there was no life until he was unbound.

In other words, the people in his life must help him live or he will continue to be dead.

Symbolically, I think John wants us to hear our own story in the stories he tells.  Some of us, I suspect, are like Martha and Mary who know the right words of faith but who don’t know how to put it into action.  I suspect that more of us are like Lazarus who has been raised from the dead and now must learn how to live.

Too many of us walk around stiff legged waiting to be unbound.  Too many of us have received the gift of new life but have not been set free to experience it.  We need each other – we need the church – to help us if we are to have the abundant life Jesus promises (Jn 10:10).

Some of us are bound by habits and beliefs.

Some of us are bound by fears.

Some of us are bound by guilt.

Some of us are bound by grief.

And even if only a handful of us are bound up so tight that we cannot experience the joy of Christ, then too many of us are bound by the burial cloths of death.  And even if I am wrong and there are only a handful of us who are bound, one of the most important things we can do as a church is to help unwrap those cloths so everyone can experience and celebrate life.

Just this week I met with a young man who was so wrapped up in the circumstances of his life that he could no longer find joy in life.  He is all but suffocating in his self-pity and remorse.  He had become so comfortable wrapped in his burial cloths that it was almost impossible to help him.  And yet as tightly wrapped as he was, he knew the church was a place to turn, a place to find new life.

More often, I’ve heard the stories of people who have been unbound.  Some came out of addictions and found the church a place where they could become unbound.  Some came from troubled homes and families and found the loving environment here to be both freeing and life-giving.

Some of you were barely alive, still wrapped in the burial cloths of your past when you came here.  I hope you heard here the voice of Christ calling you from the tomb into new life.  And I hope you will help others unwrap their burial cloths so they can go free as well!

Baptism is the sacramental equivalent of being called forth from the tomb, a place where we hear Christ calling our name and know that we have received new life.

In baptism, Christ gives us new life.

In baptism, we are restored to life from death.

But baptism does not unbind us by itself.  The unbinding must happen in and through the church as we grow in our faith.  The unbinding occurs each time we gather to worship.  The unbinding happens in every classroom of our church.  The unbinding takes place each time we empower someone to serve Christ.

Baptism is only the beginning of the story, not the culmination of it.

May we all participate in this sacrament of calling forth from the dead and then follow through as we unbind those who have been raised to new life.

Amen.