Let him loose

I read a familiar passage this morning, in those wee dark hours before the pitter patter of little feet, before the bunny baskets discovered, before the smell of resurrection rolls greeting my being like a warm fuzzy blanket in the deep of winter (BTW, I finally made them right this year!!!!!).

The passage was one from the book of John surrounding the death and resurrection of Lazarus.  It got me thinking about the fact that Jesus was watching, watching everything and everyone, their responses, their fears, their astonishment, their denial, their surrender.  All different responses, from all different people.

The Message is my favorite version of the bible to glean new insights from a script I have read many times over my years.

"You don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live.  And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all.  Do you believe this?"  John 11:25-36 (The MSG)

Jesus said this to Martha, who was imploring, "Master, if you had been here before my brother died, he would have lived, like here on earth...I get that he will be raised with you at the End of time, he will be raised in new life.  That I believe..." (my paraphrase)

I think it is awesome that Martha believed that Lazarus would be raised from the dead at all!

I cannot imagine, being there with Jesus and in the midst of all of the naysayers - to his face, naysayers.  They exist now, they crowd out the light in this world.  But, to be present when they were plotting Jesus's death because they feared him, they carried their own status so highly that the threat of one more powerful, more loving and forgiving proved too risky.

Martha then ran and told her sister, "Jesus, he is here, he is asking for you!"

Mary ran and fell at his feet, "Master, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died."

The text then speaks to Jesus's emotion. He had "anger welling inside" and asked, "Where did you put him?"

Then Jesus wept.

After seeing Jesus weep, the crowd, unfamiliar with Jesus's tears...said, "Well, he could have prevented this!!!"  (My paraphrase)

Jesus became angry again inside, he walked to the tomb where Lazarus had been laid and said, "Remove the stone."

I can hardly believe what happened next, Jesus said, "Father, I am grateful that you have listened to me, I know you always listen to me, but on account of this crowd standing here...this same crowd that will turn around after seeing this and have the SAME response to my death...I have spoken so that they might believe that you sent me."

You know what then happened...Lazarus walked out, covered from head to toe with grave clothes, Jesus saying, "Let him loose..."

Let him loose speaks volumes to me this morning.

Let him loose from death, from darkness, from doubt and fear.  Let him loose from the voices of this world who come to kill and destroy hope.  Let him loose from the bonding strangling grave clothes that sin wants...and gets.  Let him loose from self doubt.  Let him loose from pain, from death.

Friends, today, as I am reminded that Jesus had emotions that day...he had anger, he had sadness, sadness that brought our KING to tears, I think about him preparing himself for his own death and resurrection and how he watched...each one and their response.  He was experiencing a foreshadowing of his own death and resurrection.

I think about how he watches me now, how he watches all of us, as we read, we experience, we worship on this day, Easter!  We say, HE IS RISEN.  We do experience anger and sadness leading up to the cross, as we reflect, we read, we pray and we try in our puny little minds to grasp the reality of a God who came so near as to live among us and then die, to be raised again.

Do we believe this?  Do we doubt as those people did at the tomb of Lazarus?  Yes, Lord, I know that one day, I will be raised with you when I die...but today?

Yes, today.  Today, you are offered the chance to believe, to be freed from the tightly wrapped and strangling sin of this fleshly world.  Jesus came to cut those grave clothes, TODAY.  He wants you to live with him TODAY. Dying to sin today, allows us to live with him, today.  Live in the light that he offers, not the darkness of the grave, for today is our foreshadowing...

Happy EASTER!!!!

AMEN!