Manchaca UMC

Week 7- “Unbind him and let him go.” (John 11:44)

I can’t help it. When I picture Lazarus emerging from the tomb, I see the original Mummy from the 1932 movie with Boris Karloff. Of course, that Mummy is perfectly able to walk around and terrify people in his cloths and is perfectly capable of taking his cloths off. Not so for Lazarus- his grave clothes restrict him and he needs help in removing them.

What are we to make of this? Three things jump out at me:

1. We all need to leave behind our old constricting ways and ideas to experience the new life which Jesus offers us. We shouldn’t expect to have everything the same and just add Jesus to it. Jesus is a catalyst who changes everything if we truly experience him.
2. All of us are meant to be free from things which hold us back from the life Jesus offers- things like poverty, addiction, discrimination, loneliness, anxiety, and fear.
3. We need others to help unbind us and we need to help unbind others. Hospitality involves helping each other live the free life Jesus offers.

There is an old parable about a man who is given a tour of hell. To his surprise, hell contains a big banquet table with abundant food. However, the people at the table are holding long spoons. The spoons make it hard to feed themselves. The people are gaunt and hungry. Then the man is given a tour of heaven. There he sees the same banquet table, abundant food and long spoons. This time the people are well fed and joyous- they learned to feed the person across the table with the long spoon. The difference between heaven and hell turned out to be that in heaven they help each other. Apparently, hospitality is a heavenly practice!

~David