Unbind him!

Starter Prayer:  "Good God, the creator of light and darkness, You who move the sun and the stars, move us into the place of light, a light so large that it will absorb all the darkness."  (From Wondrous Encounters by Richard Rohr) 

"This sleep is not to end in death, but is instead to reveal the glory of God'...With a sight that came straight from the heart...he cried out in a loud voice, 'Move the stone away!...Lazarus, come forth'  'Now, you unbind him and let him go free."  

I imagine that all of those present when Lazarus actually came forth were hesitant to reach out and touch the shrouded figure.  They were experienced enough with death to know that the corpse had a stench and the flesh was hard and cold.  That is the reality.  Add to the mix whatever the imagination would add about a corpse walking out of the tomb.  And then add to that the words:  Ok, now go up to it and unbind the cloths that are covering the corpse.   

I don't know about you, but I am not so sure that would be the first on my "to do" list in that moment.  

Sometimes when something of "us" dies, our preferred course of action may be to put it to rest and seal the pain of loss or failure in a place where we will never have to look at it again.  

Yet we are learning that transformation often does build upon what once was there -- the past is not suddenly made perfect, but the new life does express the transformation of the old into something new.   And in order for the "new" to be revealed, we often need to go through a process of unbinding it;  it rarely pops out like a jack in the box!  

Unbinding is OUR part in the miracle of resurrection, which occurs when Christ is in our midst.