A man was tied tightly with ropes and thrown into a pit. When help came, they shouted, “Come out!” He answered, “I cannot, I am bound!” So they first removed the ropes, and then he walked out. Lazarus came out, but still wrapped in gravecloths. Jesus said, “Unbind him.” Resurrection is not only coming out—it is also being set free. The following scriptural readings touch on the theme of resurrection: Ezekiel 37:12-14; A letter from St. Paul to the Romans 8:8-11, and the Gospel of John 11:1-45.
The Prophet Ezekiel prophesied about the resurrection of Israel. The people had lost hope, appearing as dry bones scattered in exile, battered by foreigners and demoralised by the hardships of exile. In order to have a good understanding of this passage, it is important to read the preceding verses (37:1-11). In their frustration, they expressed their condition: “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off” (37:11). They questioned, “Can these bones come back to life?” (37:3). The Lord responded to their doubts with a strong assurance of a new life and new spirit. He said to them, “I will make breath enter you, so you may come to life” (37:5). The Lord promised them a national resurrection, saying to them, which is similar to saying “Israel will be great again” by becoming a United nation (Israel and Judah) coming together under the everlasting dynasty of David.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus performs a spectacular miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. It was not the only time he raised someone from the dead. It was the third time. He raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Mark 5:21-43); he brought back the son of the widow of Naim to life (Luke 7:11-17). He raised the daughter of Jairus only a few hours after her death. He raised the widow’s son, just as he was being carried for burial. He was still fresh in death. The case of Lazarus was unique because he had died four days earlier and was already in the grave, not even in the mortuary. The story's sequence is interesting and instructive.
First, Lazarus was ill, and his sisters sent a message to Jesus, who was their close family friend, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus received this message, he said, “This illness is not unto death; it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it.” Jesus stayed for four days and went to Bethany after the death of Lazarus. Just imagine how Mary and Martha would have felt. Naturally, they should be angry with Jesus for not attending promptly to their call for help. They could have behaved like an angry mob in Nigeria that throws stones at fire brigade personnel who arrive after a fire inferno has ravaged a building or a detachment of police men who reluctantly arrive after an armed bandit has completed a deadly operation. This was not the case with these two women of faith.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, while Mary sat in the house. Martha said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died, and even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” He added, the punch line and the main message he wanted his listeners to hear, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Jesus outwardly expressed his human feelings when he saw Mary crying, and the Jews who accompanied her were also weeping. He was deeply moved in spirit, and when he went to see the lifeless body of his friend, Lazarus, he wept.
The words that touch me most in this whole story were the three words of Jesus. After the stone had been rolled out of the tomb, he prayed, then cried with a loud voice and pronounced these three words: “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:44). Lazarus responded by coming out. Jesus released him from the pangs of death. You can imagine the curious eyes that were looking at the wonder happening right before them. I imagine that some people must have run away when they saw the dead Lazarus opening his eyes, and more so when he began moving his limbs.
When I think of these three words of Jesus, “Lazarus, come out,” I think of the book of Exodus, which is essentially about the coming out of the people of Israel from slavery to freedom. Coming out was the best thing that happened to them. However, they had to pass through Water, Wilderness and War in the process of coming out. No slave master wants to release his slave; no cult organisation wants to let its members out; no oppressor wants to set his oppressed people out.
Jesus cries out to us with a loud voice even now. He is asking us to come out and enjoy the fullness of life. He is asking us to come out and enjoy the breath of a new spirit. He is commanding us to come out of the grave, which symbolises a dungeon, darkness and despair.
There are times when we hide in our shells, refusing to come out of a negative experience we have suffered in the past. Jesus says, “Come out.” There are times when we find ourselves trapped in having low self-esteem and a negative image of ourselves. Jesus says, “Come out.” There are times when we are too closed in on ourselves, so full of ourselves, and we need to come out and reach out to others. Most importantly, we need to come out and embrace the full life that Jesus offers us. St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, says, “The one who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies. The mission of Jesus is to restore life to those who are physically and spiritually dead in sin.
