Unbound

 She kept watching the road, hoping. She knew he would come. He had loved him. Even when her brother was sick, she still held onto the fragile hope that he would come and heal him. Now he was dead and the only thing she wanted was the comfort of him there. To sit at his feet, be in his presence and know he knew how she felt. Shattered.

When her sister, Martha ran out, she thought she was going to do something. Make sure people had enough to eat. Or make sure their guests didn’t need anything. Mary was too consumed by grief to move. It wasn’t until she came back and told her Jesus was asking for her that she moved, ran to find him. To pour out all her sorrow to him. And that is what she did. 

She met him on the road and cried and he cried. She knew then he understood how hard this all had been on them. When he asked to go and see him she only thought it normal to lead him to the place where he was laid. Then when he asked to roll the stone away, she was hopeful. After all she had sat at his feet. She had listened to his stories. To his ways of healing, to how impossible things could become possible with just a little faith.

We are like Mary. We sit waiting. Waiting for this time to be over. Waiting for a miracle that will fill the empty spaces in our churches and our church memories. We hope that a miracle will happen. What we don’t realize is that Jesus is calling us. 

Come forth! We may see the things binding us to the inside here. To the pews, to the hymns, to the people we still see in our imagination. But we are being asked to unbind ourselves and come. Come and see what life is renewed. Come and see beyond our insides and push out. Come and be a part of becoming new life.

When I was in seminary someone wrote a story about Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and what came after resurrection. How hard it was, how it would have been easier to remain in the grave because reimagining themselves into a family, into the community was too hard. The question which had to be asked is where is God calling them now. After Jesus is crucified. After they lose the one who healed them back into a family. Where does God call them?

We sit at the precipice of the tomb the week before Holy Week. It is important to hear how the story resonates with us. Are we in the tomb, are we crying out our losses, are we stuck thinking there is nothing left for us? 

Can you hear it? Can you hear the voice beckoning, calling us from beyond? Come. How would you respond if you can hear it? Will you come out, will you be drawn into the fact that Jesus loves us. Understands our hurts and losses, cries with us, and then beckons us. Maybe it’s to roll away the stone of what we think is sealed and shut. Maybe it’s to unbind ourselves from all that weighs us down about what should be, what might be, and what could be. Or maybe it’s to take those first steps to come into the light and know we now have another opportunity to live.