Today’s readings are about the resurrection. That is the ultimate miracle that Jesus has performed. He has called someone after four days from the grave. Let’s just pause for an instant and reflect on what happened to Lazarus.
Jesus, in order to perform – to prove himself as the son of God, in order to be able to do this miracle – he has asked Lazarus to die twice in his life! That’s a thing that I think you could say you wouldn’t even ask from your worst enemies. We would like our enemies actually to die twice (or maybe even more often) so it’s strange that Jesus asks this not from an enemy but from someone whom he loves a lot. That’s the first very strange fact about this reading.
There’s another strange fact, and that is that Lazarus is still bound when he comes out of the grave. Jesus says, “Come out, Lazarus”, and of course. Jesus knows everything, so he knows that they’re all sort of straps and tissues tied around Lazarus. So, he comes out. He doesn’t even know where he’s going. I mean, he finds the exit although there’s still a cloth on his face. His feet are still bound. It’s very strange.
What does it mean? It means that Christ, who is resurrected, asks us to share in his resurrection, although we are still sort of blind, we’re still sort of bound. Often, we’re blind because we’re too sad, we are too angry, and in this life we are often bound by everything that keeps us down, keeps us, hinders us when we want to go forward like addictions, also anger, disappointments. There’s a lot of reasons why we can get locked in ourselves – our own sadness, our own anger, our own little pleasures – and, of course, the internet is a fantastic world of virtual pleasures without any responsibility, so also without any lasting happiness.
Anyway, whether it is the virtual world of pleasures, the real world of sadness and anger, we can get very much locked up in ourselves and our ego becomes a grave, but we must not be scared for the fact that Jesus calls us from the grave – from our ego – although we’re still bound, and although we’re still quite blind, that’s the beauty of the fight.
We can share in the resurrection. Even before we are dead, we’re still alive and kicking. We’re not dead yet, and yet Jesus gave us the chance in this life to fight, go forward and share in his resurrection. Now that may sound a bit strange. That may seem a bit silly, but very often that’s because we still have a dusty cloth hanging over our faces.
So, when we want to fight – and I guess there’s a lot of you listening watching – who reflect on why fighting can be so interesting. When you like to fight, you should understand that to fight is just another way, actually, maybe even the best way, to express your desire to see, because we can have come out of the grave, we can be free, but we still don’t see yet, and that’s what our life of faith is about. It’s about being moved ultimately by the desire to see.
First shared on The Sunday Eucharist on March 26, 2023