"untie him and let him go free" Homily from the Fifth Sunday of Lent

A few years ago, I preached about a friend of mine who sent me a letter about his struggle with sadness, grief, and depression. Everything about this weekend’s Gospel reflects his life, and maybe ours. For whatever reason, a person struggles, those times of darkness, struggles or feeling hopeless are real. My friend described his experience like being stuck in a cave and tied up by regrets, fears, anxieties, and the overwhelming feelings of hopelessness. He talked about feeling abandoned by God and left all alone. How many times have many of us felt the same way to some degree or another? We have all felt that God left us alone or worse yet, is ignoring us. So many things we experience in life feel like the tie us up and will not let go. Chronic illness, sin, fear, depression, family issues, and the list continues feel like the burial bands that tied Lazarus up.

Our families and friends often feel miles away separated from us by thick walls we create or they create. Like Martha, they may be angry because they cannot change anything or feel like every door is closed to them. Like Martha, they maybe yelling at God because even He feels distant and separate. Like Mary, they may be so overwhelmed by it all that they shut down. Sometimes our families and friends are like the people who surround Martha and Mary, meaning well, but offering all sorts of advice and unneeded words. After all, when we are going through something everyone else has all the answers.

Finally, where is God in the darkness? Where is God when we feel like there is no way to turn? My friend talked about this in his letter, and we hear it echoed in the psalms and throughout history. Where is God in the midst of death? Why do these things happen that are tragic and hurt? Theology does not take away the pain. Friends and family sometimes make it worse with pious platitudes. God, however, walks with us into that pain, into that darkness, into that struggle and uncertainty, into that time when we have to let go of control, into that tomb of our despair and pain. It is God who unties us and heals us.

This is the whole point of our faith. People need God in their darkness and their pain. We need God in the tombs of despair and pain. Jesus, by His struggle, His death, his time in the tomb and His resurrection, shows us that we will never be alone in all that and that He will bring us into Light and Hope. We know this because He went through it first and changed the ending.

We need to be like Jesus and walk next to a struggling brother or sister. We are called to accompany each other into the tomb with the light of faith and witness with our love and not our words. We walk with, not lecture another. We change the structures that trap others and tie up their hope and life; we do not change them. Our role, simply, is to be the witness to the miracle of Jesus who calls us to new life and resurrection.

May Jesus work through us to free the world and may we free each other from all that keeps us being free