Unbind him and let him go! |
The
First Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Ezekiel
was a prophet at the time of the kingdom of Judah’s demise and the deportation
of many of the people to Babylon. In our passage this morning the prophet is
speaking out of this experience of destruction and exile. What the prophet sees
is a vision of the stunning power of God to bring newness to what seems lost or
dead. The community will come home and be restored, but only by the sovereign
power of God.
37:1 The hand of the Lord came
upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full
of bones. 2 He led me all around
them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones
live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then
he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I
will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause
flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you
shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
7 So I prophesied as I had been
commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the
bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I
looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin
had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy,
mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four
winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the
breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast
multitude. 11 Then he said to me,
“Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are
dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus
says the Lord God: I am going to open
your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring
you back to the land of Israel. 13 And
you shall know that I am the Lord,
when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you
shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I,
the Lord, have spoken and will
act, says the Lord.”
Psalm 130
1 Out of the depths have I
called to you, O Lord;
Lord, hear my voice; *
let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.
2 If you, Lord,
were to note what is done amiss, *
O Lord, who could stand?
3 For there is forgiveness with you; *
therefore you shall be feared.
4 I wait for the Lord;
my soul waits for him; *
in his word is my hope.
5 My soul waits for the Lord,
more than watchmen for the morning, *
more than watchmen for the morning.
6 O Israel, wait for the Lord, *
for with the Lord there
is mercy;
7 With him there is plenteous redemption, *
and
he shall redeem Israel from all their sins.
The
Second Reading: Romans 8:6-11
The eighth chapter of Romans is pivotal in the letter. It is also Paul’s most extensive treatment of
the Spirit of God. The Spirit is that divine power that brings us “out of sin
into righteousness, out of death into life” (Eucharistic Prayer B from The Book of Common Prayer, p. 368). This Spirit also assures as, as
this chapter will proclaim at its end, that nothing can separate us from the
love of Christ. “The flesh” is Paul’s metaphor for everything and anything that
can separate us from God.
8:6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the
Spirit is life and peace. 7 For
this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not
submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, 8 and
those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But
you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells
in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is
dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from
the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to
your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
The
Holy Gospel: John 11:1-45
Our Gospel reading concludes the encounters of individuals with Jesus
in the Gospel of John with the story of the raising of Lazarus. The encounter
is really with Martha and Mary, of course, but Lazarus is the main character
throughout. It is an awesome story. Jesus is clearly emotionally involved, and
the story ends on an ominous note. Great
rejoicing at the raising is not what is recorded, but a kind of awestruck
silence on the one hand, and a grim determination on the part of the
authorities that Jesus is simply too dangerous to tolerate further (11:46).
11:1 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.
The
Scripture quotations (except for the psalm) are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ
in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.
All rights reserved. The Collect
of the Day and the Psalm translation are from The Book of Common Prayer. Commentaries
are copyright © 2017, Epiphany ESources, 67 E. Main St., Hornell, NY 14843, www.epiphanyesources.com. All
rights reserved. Permission is given to copy for group study with attribution.
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