Weekly Seeds: “Unbind”
Sunday, March 22, 2026
Fifth Sunday in Lent | Year A
Focus Theme:
“Unbind”
Focus Prayer:
Holy One, unbind all that holds us back from moving forward to follow you in freedom. Amen.
Focus Scripture:
John 11:1-45
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.
All readings for this Sunday:
Ezekiel 37:1-14 • Psalm 130 • Romans 8:6-11 • John 11:1-45
Focus Questions:
What holds us back from living full and flourishing lives?
What holds us back from following the way of Jesus?
What holds us back from witnessing to the kindom?
What holds us back from demonstrating the glory of God?
What could your life and our communal life become if we were unbound from these things?
Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay
Binding serves several uses. As an action, it describes the process of holding, tying, or fastening separate items together. As a noun, it refers to the process itself, the tools used in that process, or the impact of the process. Physical books are bound together to keep the pages together, in order, and easy to turn. Sometimes, they are sewn, sometimes glued, and sometimes placed into a binder, or vessel to collect and keep the pages together. In other circumstances, binding is used to staunch the flow of blood, temporarily set bone fractures, or to attempt to close an open wound.
The gospel reading presents, in detail, a familiar story. Lazarus, a friend of Jesus, has become deathly ill. Word reaches Jesus who decides not to act or move with any urgency. In fact, Jesus delays his travels to the home of Lazarus presumably until Lazarus’ illness progresses to the point of death and beyond. When Jesus arrives, Mary and Martha, siblings to Lazarus and friends of Jesus, are receiving visitors to comfort them because Lazarus has died. His body has been in the tomb for four days, and there is nothing left to do but to mourn his passing and cling to the hope of resurrection. Martha tells Jesus that her brother is dead but indicates her hope that Jesus will be able to change that condition. She calls her sister to join them. The women demonstrate great faith (as had Thomas when Jesus invited the disciples to witness this miracle). Mary, however, is consumed with her grief and believes the opportunity for intervention has passed. Jesus demonstrates otherwise, and Lazarus emerges from the tomb that is now empty.
In the first century, Jews were buried in linen shrouds and their bodies laid in a sealed tomb so that the flesh would decompose. After a period of eleven months, the tomb would be unsealed, and the bones would be placed in an ossuary (bone box) and stored on a shelf in the tomb (Hachlili). In the days after burial, however, removing the stone would release the stench of decomposition.
Adele Reinhartz
Mary’s objection arises from the belief that resuscitation was possible within three days. After the third day, the body would have begun to decompose and death was sealed in it reflected by the stench that Mary notes. Removing the stone promises to be a messy action. New life may be wonderful, but it is not neat and tidy. Lazarus emerges from the tomb with his body still wearing the attire of death. The strips of cloth that covered his remains did not fall away or disintegrate when breath re-enters his body or even when he arises and moves beyond the borders of the tomb. They cling to him. They hamper his movement. They serve as a tangible hold of the stench of death not letting go.
Jesus tells those gathered around Lazarus—those who assembled to mourn his death and to comfort one another—to unbind him now that he lives. It is certainly a literal request. One can only imagine the disorientation Lazarus must have experienced; therefore, the assistance of his loved ones would be helpful in navigating his new reality. And, it would have been a new reality. His death, like any major transition, would change him irrevocably. He was still Lazarus but not the same person before he became ill. The text does not continue his story so we could only speculate about the rest of his life’s journey. Jesus makes it clear that the journey has not ended, and Lazarus will need to be “loosed” in order to move forward.
Further, more than the cloth restricts Lazarus. Jesus tells those gathered to “let him go.” In other words, the need for immediate and particular assistance does not give them license to replace the cloth in clinging to his person. Those who have been charged with caregiving for a severely ill person may recognize the struggle to re-establish previous boundaries when that same level of care is no longer needed. For the mourners, this is a lesson for their interactions with the no longer ill or dead Lazarus. The incredulity of the miracle would naturally lead to confusion. Does Lazarus still need care and attention? Does life go back to normal for Lazarus…and for those who witnessed this miracle? Jesus’ response would indicate that is the expectation.
While this event may foreshadow the possibilities following his own death, some scholars caution against taking the parallels too far.
In keeping with that future scenario, Lazarus ‘came out.’ yet the facetious comment often made that if Jesus had not called out the name ‘Lazarus’ all the dead would have risen is not quite pertinent, because there are substantial differences between this miracle and the general resurrection expected at the end of the age. No one will have to ‘lift the stone’ on that day (v. 39), and (most conspicuously) Lazarus comes out still ‘bound with bandages on his feet and hands, and his face wrapped in a cloth,’ so that Jesus has to give ‘the crowd standing around’ yet another command, ‘Loosen him, and ‘let him go’ (v.44). Despite rich symbolism, this is a resuscitation, not a resurrection. Later, when Jesus himself is raised, the contrast will be self-evident, for the stone will be already ‘taken away from the tomb’ (20:1), Jesus’ body nowhere to be seen, and only ‘the linen cloths lying, and the cloth which had been over his face not with the linen cloths, but rolled up by itself in one place’ (20:7). The so-called ‘resurrection’ of Lazarus is but a sign of future resurrection (see 12:18), not the event itself. The promise to Martha that her brother ‘will rise’ still awaits ‘the resurrection at the last day’ (vv. 23-24). For the moment, Lazarus is not being ushered into the age to come, but simply received back into everyday life. This is evident in other Gospel resuscitations….Here, because Lazarus was already in a tomb, wrapped in ill-smelling bandages and a facecloth, Jesus instead says, ‘Loosen him, and let him go.’
J. Ramsey Michaels
It is worth remembering that Jesus had a choice and could have arrived before the need for resuscitation. Instead, Jesus decided that in this instance death was necessary. Something needed to die in order for the freedom of new life to emerge from the stench of the tomb.
What if the decline of the church is a necessary, if slow, death that will let complicity, compliance, and complacency with nationalism reach its end so that the church renewed in the realm and reign of the Holy One may come forth unfettered by the strings that empire so often attaches to comfort and convenience?
What if the chaos and confusion of this age is a necessary, if painful, opportunity to finally bury the mythology of equality and justice for all that this nation likes to claim in theory but quickly abandons in practice?
The biblical witness does not proclaim that Lazarus deserved to die so the symbolism and metaphorical treatment of the text should not claim that about him as a person. However, the gospel narrative informs us that his death was caused after severe illness. When dealing with dis-ease, it may be treated aggressively, with moderate interventions, or allowed to run its course. Different conditions require different strategies.
In this case, Jesus allowed his friend to suffer through his disease as a demonstration of divine power to transcend death. Sometimes, in the practice of medicine, despite best efforts, intentions, and experience, the wrong treatment is pursued.
For too long, the collective and communal approach of the majority has been to let the problems and divisions of the nation run its course or to address it with incrementalism. Those strategies rarely lead to wellness and restoration. They mostly prolong suffering and delay the eventual end. In the worst case scenario, that posture further aggravates the problem and makes the situation acute.
We let it run its course when we are silent to injustice and immorality. We let it run its course when we compromise principle in order to preserve tenuous relationships under the fallacy of keeping the peace. We let it run its course when we focus on individual sin and hell avoidance rather than communal liberation and restoration of justice as the ministry of Jesus.
But the good news is that we can change course. Like in medicine, when it becomes clear that an action plan is not working, new interventions may be attempted. The good news is that we do not have to wait for total destruction to prepare for new life.
And the challenge and charge that Jesus gives to us is to remove anything holding the stench of death and destruction behind us—to unbind.
Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.
“A Slave Father’s Prayer” (1898) by Jacob Stroyer
When the time came for us to go to bed we all knelt down in family prayer, as was our custom, father’s prayer seemed more real to me that night than ever before, especially in the words, “Lord, hasten the time when these children shall be their own free men and women.”
My faith in my father’s prayer made me think that the Lord would answer him at the fartherest in two or three weeks, but it was fully six years before it came, and father had been dead two years before the war.
For Further Reflection
“The funny thing about armor is that it doesn’t just keep other people out. It keeps us in. We build it up around us, not realizing that we’re trapping ourselves.” ― Victoria Schwab
“Like dust brushed from an old painting, as we journey beneath the surface layers of life, another landscape is revealed.” ― Atalina Wright
“The world is not composed with order alone. Can’t you apprehend? Not being bound by anything is the greatest limitation.” ― Hakos Baelz
A preaching commentary on this text (with works cited) is at //ucc.org/SermonSeeds.
The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments below this post on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.
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