LENT 5 - Passion Sunday
I’m hopeless at making choices. Whether it’s at the pick'n'mix counter in Woollies (grief, that dates me!), or deciding which tie to wear (on the very rare occasions I get to actually wear a tie!) it takes me ages to choose. Give me a restaurant menu, and the whole evening could pass before I’ve chosen my starter. So faced with this morning’s gospel reading, I’m spoilt for choice. The story of the raising of Lazarus offers quite a few pegs to hang a sermon on. We could ponder why Jesus seems to take so long to respond to the request to come to Bethany. Alternatively we could reflect theologically on what Jesus meant when he somewhat blithely says that Lazarus has only ‘fallen asleep’ – what’s all that about? Or we could look more closely at the response that Jesus receives from Martha and Mary, both of them saying separately ‘Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died’, but each of the sisters meeting with Jesus being different none the less. Then of course we might dwell on the mechanics of raising a body from the grave, and focus on Lazarus emerging from the tomb. What a choice……
It’s a bit like climbing the Eiffel Tower – or for the more sophisticated among us, the Blackpool Tower. You can either meander up slowly – pausing to take in the view at each stage along the way – or get the lift straight to the top and take in the whole panorama in all its breathtaking expanse! It’s the same with John 11. We could meander through this passage – or we could go straight to the peak…..and that is the very climax of the story. Not only Lazarus emerging from the tomb, but the authoritative words of Jesus: Unbind him and let him go! Somehow, those six words hold the key to the whole episode.
Firstly, on a physical level of course, Lazarus – as he shuffled out of the cold tomb – needed someone to loosen his grave wrappings and set him free. Just as death had been unbound, so physically he needed to be set free from the trappings of death. Secondly, on a religious level, Jesus had moved way beyond the scope of jewish law. Coming to the tomb and breaking it open would have made them all – everyone present - ritually unclean. Jesus, once again was stepping outside of the accepted religious norms. Just as Lazarus was not to be bound by the rigid laws of his orthodox burial, so Jesus was leading his followers beyond the laws of Judaism and refusing to be bound by the socially and religiously acceptable rules of his day. And thirdly, on a spiritual level Jesus offers his disciples a new life – a new freedom – in their relationship with God, their creator. As St Paul was later to expound, that new life was not to be based on Law but on Grace. Not a relationship we earn or improve by our efforts (however pious) but rather a relationship which has its beginning and end in God’s accepting and forgiving love.
Unbind him, and let him go! Six words, which in the context of Jesus ministry reverberate physically, religiously and spirituality. Unbind him, and let him go.
You will have noticed that the crosses are veiled in purple –as today we begin the final leg of the Lenten race known as Passiontide. Veiling crosses and statues in Passiontide is a very old liturgical custom in the church – in fact many would say ‘old fashioned’. But it is, I think, a helpful visual marker that we are moving beyond the drudgery of Lent and closer to the events and devotions of Holy Week. Those veils are perhaps even more appropriate in conjunction with this morning’s gospel reading. Instead of veils, think of them as shrouds, or bindings…Passiontide, with its traditional bindings, looks ahead to the events of Holy Week and eventually the shrouding of Jesus in the tomb. John’s account of the raising of Lazarus looks forward not just to Holy Week, but to the breathtaking, heart-stopping, earth-renewing wonder of Easter-Resurrection. But not yet. For now, at least, we are left with the wrappings. Waiting. Bound.
A few years back we held the parish retreat in Offchurch, near Leamington Spa. On the tower of the parish church next door to the retreat house there is a sun dial, and above it ate the words “Don’t forget to Live”. It is surprisingly easy to do. The theme of LIFE and LIVING flows through each of the readings this morning – Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, and Paul’s mind-blowing understanding that Christian life is about the resurrection going on inside you through the work of the Holy Spirit here and now. And that same theme of LIFE and LIVING is hugely important through John’s Gospel – just the week before last Jesus described himself to the Samaritan woman as the living water, and Jesus is described as the bread of life. And you’ll remember that John records seven signs to demonstrate who Jesus is – and this is the seventh and final sign. Aside from the story of Christ’s passion itself, the story of ‘The Raising of Lazarus’ is the essence and climax of the whole gospel. It puts into action that astounding claim of the Jesus who said “I have come that you may have life in all its fullness”. The gospel today is not so much about raising Lazarus from the dead…..but raising him to life.
What are the things which bind you? The things which stifle and constrain you? Maybe it’s the past, looming over you. Maybe it’s a fear of the future stretching ahead of you? or just the weight of the present moment. To a certain extent we are all ‘shrouded’ - bound by past failures, old hurts, lingering grievances and disappointments. And no matter how much we try we can’t quite grasp for long enough, the liberating truth that it is not law we need, but grace. That relationship which has its beginning and end in God’s accepting and forgiving love.
The words which this morning’s gospel leaves ringing in our ears are the most powerful of all: Unbind him, and let him go. Unbind her, and let her go. And that means to Unbind you, and let you go….
I hope that as many of you as possible will be involved in as much of Holy Week as possible. Those who did so last year have said often in the past year of how much more powerful and meaningful Easter was as a result. Now that might be on a superficial level, down to drama and liturgical quackery (not I surely!). But actually it is because the story of Holy Week and Easter is our story – as much as it is Christ’s.
Easter celebrates the breaking through and the triumph of a relationship with God based on God, rather than on our good intentions and achievements (however spiritual and ‘christian’ they may be). Easter celebrates that amazing truth that death is now bound, and Christ and all who follow in his steps are free. Like Lazarus, we are unbound, and set free. But the reality for you and me is that it is a long job, and for each of us there is a lot of unwinding yet to be done. But Christ has spoken.
Today, on this Passion Sunday, as you receive Communion or a blessing ....listen – and hear Jesus saying to you: I have come that you may have life in all its fullness……So don’t forget to live….Unbind him, and let him go.
