Unbind Him

In the last three Sundays, the Church has given us extremely long accounts from the Gospel of John. Two weeks ago, we heard of Jesus’ encounter with Samaritan woman. Last Sunday, we heard of the sign that Jesus performed by curing the blind man. Today, we hear almost the entire of the 11th Chapter of John's gospel. I'm quite sure that many would agree that the Gospel of John is not easy to read. 

In majority of the signs that Jesus performed in the Gospel of John, it generally has the same theme. Jesus performs a miracle or a sign, which results in misunderstanding among the people, and the Jewish authorities get more and more angry with him.

We see this Last Sunday, where Jesus cures the blind man. Jesus cures the Blind Man on a Sabbath day, and the Jewish Authorities got upset and persecuted the blind man and Jesus. The Jewish Authorities went so far as to say “A man who did this cannot be from God, because he does not obey the sabbath law”.

In Tuesday’s gospel, which is also from the Gospel of John, for those who follow the daily readings,  Jesus also performs a similar sign. Jesus healed the man who had been sick for 38 years, and again, Jesus was persecuted because the Jewish Authorities got upset that he had done this on a sabbath. And they get even more upset when Jesus says that his Father is always working, and therefore he too must work. They get upset that he says that God is his own father.

And even when he multiplied the loaves and fishes, and claimed to be the bread that came down from heaven, and that we are to eat his flesh and drink his blood, many of the people get offended and they all left! And Jesus was just left with the twelve.

And all of these signs make the Jewish Authorities so mad that they want to kill Jesus! But in the midst of all that, Jesus stuck to the truth. Do we stick to the truth, even when it’s difficult?

And all of these signs accumulate in this last sign that Jesus performed in the Gospel of John (before his passion of course!), the raising of Lazarus from the dead, which we hear in today’s Gospel. Jesus hears that Lazarus is critically ill, and his family lives near Jerusalem, which basically is a trap for Jesus because people wanted to kill him. But he LOVES Lazarus. “Lord, the man you love is ill”. And it’s that love that makes Jesus go near Jerusalem, knowing that it may cost him his life.

Why did Jesus wait till Lazarus was dead? Was it because he was tired of curing people of illnesses? John’s gospel already has many accounts of Jesus curing people of illnesses, like the blind man, the man who had been sick for 38 years, or the centurion’s son. Could it be that Jesus wanted to do something different? Or maybe he knew that this would be the last sign he would perform so he wanted to go big or go home? Or maybe Lazarus was ill with something like COVID-19 and Jesus wanted to be socially responsible, and make sure the virus dies before coming to raise Lazarus?

Well, John tells us in this verse. “On receiving the message, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.’”

He waited, so that he be glorified through it. But Jesus’ version of glory is quite different from the way that we would want to be glorified. Sure, Jesus received many human praises. Next Sunday, we celebrate Palm Sunday, and the gospel of John tells us again that the crowd met Jesus on Palm Sunday and shouted "Hosanna" because they heard that he performed this miracle of raising Lazarus. But Jesus also knew that by raising Lazarus, the Jewish Authorities were going to kill him. 

In fact, if we read the end of this chapter, which is sadly excluded from today's Gospel, when the Jewish Authorities heard that Jesus had performed this miracle, they called a meeting, they actually said “Look at all the Miracles that Jesus is performing! If we let him go on, everyone will believe in him, and the romans will destroy our temple and our nation!”, and the high priest actually declared “don’t you think it’s better to let one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed?” And from there, they made plans to kill Jesus. 

Jesus knew that he was going to be glorified, not just by the people who believed in him and shouted Hosanna on Palm Sunday, but by his cross. Jesus, saw the cross as his throne. Before his passion, Jesus says in John’s gospel “the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” and he says this just before he gives up his life on the cross!

And when he is prosecuted and asked if he is the King of the Jews, he actually tells Pilate in Matthew’s gospel, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man glorified and seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” That is Jesus’ version of glory, his cross. His style of glory is not our way of receiving human praise, but to be the suffering servant Messiah prophesied about in Isaiah 53. 

How about us? Do we see the cross as our throne? Are we happy to suffer for others?

Finally, one last thing that struck me in today’s gospel was when Jesus said “Unbind him”. It seems quite trivial. I mean, of course they wouldn't want Lazarus to be walking around with the burial cloths restricting him, but it's actually quite linked to what Jesus did with his cross! Jesus took upon himself the full weight of our sin, which binds us as slaves. Jesus came to unbind us from our sins and the things of this world that enslave us, through his cross. But do we want to be unbounded?

In a way, all of us are like Lazarus. All of us may be critically ill, dead, not because of COVID-19 (hopefully!), but because of our sins and our attachments to this world. But Jesus still reaches out to us, because like Lazarus, he loves us! And he beckons us to arise, come out of hiding, out of our caves, to fight for the truth, to bear our crosses, and to be joyful in suffering for the sake of the Gospel. Will we accept this challenge?