“Those who walk during the day don’t stumble, because they see the light of this world. However, those who walk at night stumble because they have no light in themselves.” – Jesus (John 11:9-10 GW)
Recently I heard a sermon that referenced Jesus’s resurrection of Lazarus. As you probably remember, Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha were good friends of Jesus, but Lazarus became ill and died, Jesus tarried, and by the time Jesus came to their town, Lazarus had been in the grave for four days. Since there was no embalming in that culture, the natural courses of decomposition would have begun. When Jesus said, “Take the stone away,” Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there must already be a stench. He’s been dead for four days.” (John 11:39 GW) Martha, Mary, Jesus, and everyone around them knew what the smell of death was, yet Jesus prayed, told them to move the stone, and then he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” The man who had died came out with his feet and his hands bound with strips of linen and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus told them, “Loose him and let him go.” (John 11:44 GW)
Have you ever felt like you were bound with spiritual strips of linen – even spiritually dead? Maybe you felt like you were wrapped with an evil that held onto your mind and heart. Maybe the dirt and pollutants of the world were so stuck to you that a basic rain storm wouldn’t clean you and you needed a Holy Spirit “Power Wash!” This is one beautiful opportunity of the season of Lent that we begin tomorrow.
But let us not stop with self-reflection.
Have you ever noticed someone in your life or your church who was struggling with the pollutants and even death of this world? They [I, we…] need to have those metaphorical “grave cloths” unbound from them. They need to be freed from trauma, addictions, sins, emotional angst, wounds, and whatever else keeps them in bondage. They need to be set free – cleansed, healed, made whole. That’s the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit through the people of Jesus’s Church. The people around Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were told, “Free Lazarus, and let him go.” (John 11:44 GW) The first Disciples – and you and I of today – are told, “…wherever you go, make disciples of all nations…Teach them to do everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20 GW). Part of being a disciple is teaching and doing things Jesus did, and part of what Jesus did was to help people to be unbound from the sins, sicknesses, demons, and disabilities they had. When Jesus told the people to free Lazarus and let him go, this dead man was freed from his physical grave cloths. When we help others be healed of sins, bitterness, cursing, hatred, anger, rage, unforgiveness, addictions, demons, sickness, and everything else, we are, in effect, helping them to be loosed from their spiritual and emotional grave cloths.
If the Son sets anyone free, they will be absolutely free!! AMEN.
God,
We praise you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Through Christ, you have blessed us with every spiritual blessing that heaven has to offer. Thank you that, before the creation of the world, you chose us to be adopted through Jesus Christ. Thank you for your call on our lives to make disciples of Jesus, and to help them be freed from the spiritual, physical, and emotional pollutants of this world. Help us to live as Christ’s people, sinking our spiritual roots deep in him and being strengthened by faith in you. Holy Spirit, help us to extend your grace, love, and healing to all those who seek you. We pray they (we!) will be freed from trauma, wounds, anger, rage, bitterness, cursing, hatred, unforgiveness, sins, addictions, demons, sickness, and everything else, in Jesus’s name. We praise you and give you all glory. AMEN.
Get rid of your bitterness, hot tempers, anger, loud quarreling, cursing, and hatred. Be kind to each other, sympathetic, forgiving each other as God has forgiven you through Christ. (Ephesians 4:31-32 GW)
You received Christ Jesus the Lord, so continue to live as Christ’s people. Sink your roots in him and build on him. Be strengthened by the faith that you were taught, and overflow with thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7 GW)
Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Through Christ, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing that heaven has to offer. Before the creation of the world, he chose us through Christ to be holy and perfect in his presence. Because of his love he had already decided to adopt us through Jesus Christ. He freely chose to do this so that the kindness he had given us in his dear Son would be praised and given glory. (Ephesians 1:3-6 GW)
If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:36 NKJV)