John 11: 44…”loose him and let him go”
As I continue in the series about encountering truth through the Word and the Spirit, I often find myself in a contemplative read of a passage in one of the Gospels. At the moment, I’ve parked myself in John 11: 1-44. You can read the whole story on this link. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2011%3A%201-44&version=NIV ‘Why’ have I been sort of stuck in this particular story’, you may ask? Because it is an incredible story:
Of love and loss and pain.
Of grief and anger and blame.
Of tragedy and triumph.
Of death and resurrection.
It is a story that I can personally relate to, on MANY levels! I wish I couldn’t. But, I suspect I am not the only one. So here goes. Grab a cup of coffee and sit down with me and three of my best friends. Oddly, I have never met them but sure feel as though I have.
In these passages, there are two sisters and a brother; Mary, Martha and Lazarus who found themselves in terrible circumstances. These three siblings all lived in the same town. They were very tight with each other and with Jesus. So, when Lazarus got sick, the two sisters sent word to Jesus to ask for their brother’s healing (v. 3). In spite of his love for the three siblings (v.5), instead of coming to them at once, Jesus took his sweet time (v. 5-6). In the meantime, Lazarus died (v. 14), and the two sisters were in shock!
In the midst of their grief, they were also bewildered as to why Jesus didn’t ‘show up’ on time and heal their brother. When Jesus finally arrived ‘too late’, each sister in their turn went to Jesus, pouring out her anger, frustration, grief and pain to him. They even blamed him for their brother’s death! (v. 21, 32), knowing that he could have healed Lazarus. Jesus patiently listened to it all, and finally he wept (v.35).
Only then did Jesus act. He miraculously called Lazarus forth from his tomb, raising him from the dead after four days! This is how it happened: “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him and let him go.” (V. 43-44)
WOW! Their grief turned to joy at their brother’s physical resurrection! BUT, he was still wrapped in ‘graveclothes.’ . The physical miracle isn’t what I’m learning from their story. There are bigger lessons, at least from my perspective. Healing lessons of the emotional and spiritual variety, which is a topic near and dear to my heart. Here they are:
1. PRAY – Like Mary and Martha physically “sent word to Jesus”, when we have an urgent need or concern, we can contact Jesus through prayer. The Holy Spirit** will convey our message to Jesus.
2. TRUST GOD’S TIMING – When Jesus’ seems to delay the answer to our prayers, we can choose to trust him when we don’t understand.
3. DON’T BURY YOUR FEELINGS – When the hardest and worst things happen in our lives, we can bring all of our deeply painful emotions TO Jesus, just like Mary and Martha did. Pray them out, shout them out, talk to Jesus (in prayer), talk to Christian friends, and even talk to a Christian therapist , when needed. Jesus isn’t surprised by anger, grief, pain or even blame. When in doubt, talk it out!
4. JESUS CARES – Just like Jesus’ wept over the death of his friend Lazarus, and the pain it brought to his sisters, he cares about our pain too. In short, Jesus is an empathetic listener. Prayer and Christian fellowship bring the comfort of the Holy Spirit into our lives during times of loss and bewilderment.
5. TRUST GOD WITH THE ULTIMATE ANSWER: Sometimes we get physical healing miracles when we pray (Hebrews 13:8), sometimes we don’t. God still heals physically today, but the greatest miracle (and only one that lasts into eternity) is the spiritual resurrection which occurs when any person puts their faith and trust in Jesus as their Savior. In addition, Scripture promises us that we can be emotionally healed during this life. (Isaiah 61:1/ Luke 4: 18-19 — Jesus was sent to heal the broken hearted.) In our worst losses and pain, we can trust God to bring physical, spiritual or emotional healing to us or those we are praying for, according to his will. We pray, he answers. It’s that simple.
6. TAKE OFF YOUR ‘GRAVECLOTHES‘— Lazarus had been dead for four days. After he was physically resurrected (a miracle!), he we still wearing graveclothes. Jesus’ directed others to “loose and let him go.” Like Lazarus, we may have been raised to a new spiritual life in Christ (having been “born again” —John 3:3– through our faith), but still be ‘wearing’ invisible emotional or spiritual ‘graveclothes’ on our souls. We can ask Jesus, in prayer, (and Christian friends or leaders) to help us, ‘take off’ our emotional or spiritual graveclothes (emotional hurts, habits and hangups that have us bound in invisible chains). Only then can we experience the true freedom that only Jesus Christ can bring!
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Maybe it’s time to pour out your grief, anger, pain and even blame to Jesus. Sometimes the invisible ‘graveclothes’ we are ‘wearing’ on our soul looks like unresolved grief, bewilderment, or undealt with anger. Sometimes they look like bitterness, unforgiveness, blame or shame. Whatever emotional or spiritual ‘graveclothes’ we are wearing, we can trust Jesus to ‘loose US and let US go’ if we will only ask, through prayer.
If this post encourages your walk with Jesus, I would appreciate your PRAYERS and social media SHARES (with attribution to the author and her website please)! You can also sign up below to receive posts directly via your EMAIL inbox.
**For MORE on God’s guidance through the Word and the Spirit, check out my Bible study curriculum “GOD SPEAKS: The Guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts & Today” found at https://janetdecaster.com/books.
Thanks for stopping by.
*PHOTO CREDIT: https://www.istockphoto.com/portfolio/herlordship?mediatype=photography
