Reflection for the Vigil of the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Our gospel for this Fifth Sunday of Lent is filled with much symbolism about death and resurrection, preparing us for Holy Week and Jesus’ road to Jerusalem and beyond. Tonight however, I would like to focus on the three short commands of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus:

“Remove the stone!”
“Lazarus, come out!”
“Unbind him and let him go free!”

As Jesus arrives at the tomb of Lazarus with Mary, Martha, and the crowd of mourners, Jesus’ first command is directed to the people gathered there: “Remove the stone.” Despite Martha’s objection that it is too late, Jesus calls the crowd to action, inviting them to participate in his power to give life. For Jesus, no stone is too heavy to move no matter the situation: a broken relationship, racism and greed in our nation, or our world at war. Today Jesus calls us to action: “Remove the stone”, challenging us to remove the obstacles, the fear, the doubt, the brokenness, that keep us from participating in faith and believing in the power we have to give new life. We are called to remove all that blocks the power of Jesus working within us and to remove the stones that hold us and our brothers and sisters from experiencing new life.

Jesus’ second command is to Lazarus: “Lazarus, come out!” Consider these words for a moment. Jesus calls Lazarus and each of us by name. He knows what binds us, and he calls us to let go of whatever it is that holds us back. Jesus calls us to walk out of our tomb of hopelessness, despair, or self-centered ways of thinking into a life of hope, trusting in the power of resurrection. He calls us to move from death to new life.

And finally, Jesus commands the people to “Unbind him and let him go free”. Jesus does not unbind the cloths that bind Lazarus. Instead he turns to the mourners at the tomb, and to each of us, calling us to unbind him. This is work that belongs to us…to help each other remove what entombs them, to peel away the grave cloths of shame, grief, old habits or grudges. Jesus draws us to unbind the systems that hold others in bondage, whose lives are bound by unjust systems, crushing poverty, and exclusion in their communities. He challenges us to consider how often we keep others bound up and afraid by our words of judgment or lack of acceptance. We are called to be for one another, the hands that unbind and lead our brothers and sisters to resurrection.

Some years ago Sister Diana wrote a poem inspired by this gospel. I’d like to close with it:

Conversations on a Wall

Leave, you say,
this safe, dark crypt?
Here, invisible are
the torn wrappings,
the rotting flesh,
the timid heart,
and the huge stone
that weighs it down,
crushing the lifeblood from me
like grapes in a winepress.
No Lazarus am I,
stirred to courage
simply by the shout
of a Messiah.
Where is the hand
that will lead me
to light?
Coax me into resurrection,
quickly,
before this crypt
becomes my home.