Unbind Us - Fifth Sunday of Lent

Unbind Us - Fifth Sunday of Lent

Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
March 22, 2026

Not all that long ago I was looking at a body prepared when my Dad died. It’s so final. In Jesus’ day, when someone died, the body was prepared, the face was covered with a veil and then tightly wrapped in a linen burial shroud. Then hands and feet were securely tied with strips of fabric. No skin was left exposed. Only the form of the person remained in a clear sign of the end of all movements and life. Mary and Martha reached out when Lazarus was ill because getting caught in the grip of that finality was their greatest fear. Nothing that can move the immovable.

At first, Jesus seemed unmoved. He doesn’t respond with the urgency they or we might assign. Each passing moment feels too slow. Jesus has been teaching about God’s moving in the world and who he is, but now we are reminded that it is not only the dead who can be immovable. Many things get in the way of our capacity to shift from where we have been to where we can be. Rabbis before Jesus had been speaking of resurrection as possible, but no-one had never seen it. Now in a precursor to Jesus’ own all powerful resurrection, belief becomes real in Lazarus.

We who live on this side of the cross have also heard of resurrection as reality, but we too have not seen it in the same way. We have a lot in common with those who wanted to believe but struggled. So much cuts us off and holds us back. So, let’s take the story as it unfolds slowly and see who speaks to you.

Take the disciples. When Jesus announces, he is going to Judea to see Lazarus, they are bound up with fear. Imagine them standing in Jesus’ face, with their hands in the air.  “Are you kidding, Rabbi?! The last time we were there they tried to kill you!” When Jesus insists, they try to convince him it is not really a big deal. Fear is powerful.

The exception is Thomas, who seems determined to prove himself by exclaiming, “Let’s go and die with him!” Thomas always seems to be the outsider. Is he bound up in the need to prove his worth? Sometimes that is us too. And even though Jesus’ followers are with him daily, they still call him Teacher, not quite realizing who Jesus really is. Let’s be honest, in the world where Jesus is always being threatened, it would be hard to say he projected power they expected. Maybe they saw scripture as more teaching and promise than reality.

Then there are the sisters, Mary and Martha. They sent for Jesus and when he is finally coming, Martha doesn’t wait for Jesus to get there, she meets him. I imagine she is full of reproach and regrets. If only you’d been here. If only you had answered me sooner. And maybe she’s embarrassed because she told people the Rabbi would surely come right away but he didn’t. Unlike the disciples, she calls Jesus “Lord” and not just teacher. Her heart is reframed by Jesus enough that she says she believes Jesus is the Messiah. But she still will struggle with falling back into the same old pattern of what she does not see. And isn’t this us too?

We say we believe and yet sometimes the reality of what is in front of us claws us back into doubt.

Mary too is grieving. Mary too is saying, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But there are two differences in how Mary interacts with Jesus. She does not say she believes, but she kneels at Jesus’ feet rather than standing in his face. She weeps the tears of one who wants to believe but does not know how things will change. Even believing in Jesus’ power and love must face the weight of grief that can be so overwhelming it threatens to feel greater than faith.

The mourners see Jesus and are full of shaming- “couldn’t this man who opened the eyes of the blind have kept this man Lazarus alive?” Imagine Jesus hearing a crowd caught up in wailing and seemingly unable to hold on to hearing anything else. Imagine God’s heart now.

Jesus does not rebuke his followers or say “you of little faith” here. Jesus does not reprimand Martha or anyone for directness or being pushy. Jesus is deeply moved at seeing how bound up they are in the swirl of emotions. Everyone faces different stages of belief, but shares being bound by fears and needs, disappointment, anger, regret, confusion, shame and doubt. Imagine these emotions trying to bind Jesus there as he is deeply disturbed-The frustration of being seemingly unable to overcome the grip of all of these things that are the embodiment of the strips that bind Lazarus’ hands and feet, the cloth that covers his eyes and the shroud the clouds his identity. And then there is the weight of the stone at the tomb and the power of the reasons to not open it. Jesus tells people to move it. And when Martha says what everyone is thinking, Jesus reassures her.

“Didn’t I tell you that if you believe you will see?” followed by “Father, thank you for having heard me. I know that you do, but I have said this so that they know it too.” God hears you. Jesus cries out to Lazarus, “Come out!” It is a miracle that Lazarus, bound up as he is, can be lifted and live and come to Jesus. It is also important to see that everyone else has the same chance to be lifted up by Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world. To come out from places of needing to be brought to life anew. Imagine God’s heart calling to us- “Come out!”

We can be so caught up in known and unknown things that wrap around us and threaten to keep us from being free. Times we feel like we are wearing a shroud, and others cannot see “us” at all. Or that the real us in our current state is too scary to be dealt with. Now imagine Jesus standing wherever that may be for you. Here to free you so you can rise and know life. Not just eternal life, but life right now.

Like Mary we can kneel at Jesus’ feet and weep if we must but also call upon Jesus to bring us to life anew. Like the disciples we can tell Jesus our fears and allow him to disable them. Like Martha we can be bitter but not dismissed, rather met with love. Like the mourners we can be skeptical and be met with reassurance. In our lives, we know the grip that fear can have, the choking power of shame. We wrestle with the relentless struggle to prove ourselves or find a place of belonging. We feel the weight of grief and confusion, as heavy as a stone. All of these can cut us off from God and each other and frankly feel like a tomb sometimes. Jesus lifts us up. Jesus replaces our times we say, “But Lord” with “Didn’t I tell you?” so we can continue to believe.

Now notice who unbinds Lazarus, continuing to the work of restoring him to his people and community. It is not Jesus. It’s those who have gathered at a tomb to mourn but now see anew. We who have known loss, and have seen resurrection moments, unbind each other. We are the ones who have the blessing of telling stories where we’ve seen miracles, however fleeting or glorious. Those stories don’t just help others they strengthen our belief too. We get to tell the good news! Remember, we aren’t just waiting for eternal life; we live in the power of Christ now and Jesus is here calling to you.  AMEN

Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2026 All rights reserved.  May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.

Sermon Text: John 11:1-45
¹ Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. ³ So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” ⁴ But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather, it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ⁵ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, ⁶ after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

⁷ Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” ⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. ¹⁰ But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them.” ¹¹ After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” ¹² The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” ¹³ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

¹⁷ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” ²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 

²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

²⁸ When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³² When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³ When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴ He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus began to weep. ³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

³⁸ Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. ⁴² 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.” ⁴³ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ 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.”

⁴⁵ Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him.

 

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