Lazarus - Part 3 - The Community

John 11:41-45

So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

Lazarus released from the tomb

But still bound

by the clutches of death

It was the task of his community

to "Unbind him and let him go"

Without that release

he could not have drawn breath

Without that release

he could not have lived again.

Communities today

still bear responsibility

for giving life

For loosing

For unbinding

For giving permission

For being witnesses

to resurrection

For moving beyond the stench

to reach out

and bring life

And communities

bear the responsibility

of nurturing

and sustaining

the stirrings

of new life

wherever it is found.