In many churches this weekend, they will read from the Gospel of John, Chapter 11, the story of Lazarus, the man who had been dead for days and entombed, and left behind grieving relatives and friends.

There is a retreat center I have been to where they use the Lazarus story as emblematic for us all, because what Jesus does when he gets to the tomb—simply, incredibly—is what we are all called to receive, and to do, in our own lives.

In the story, Jesus comes to the tomb and demands the crowd roll away the stone. Jesus calls loudly, "Lazarus, come out!"

The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus says to the people assembled there, “Unbind him, and let him go." Take off his grave clothes.

You don’t have to have stopped breathing to find yourself in a tomb.

We are imprisoned by whatever keeps us from being fully alive.

What is this death that is keeping you from life?

What is the biggest stone of all for you now... the one that is keeping you inside the tomb? Can you name it?

Later, when Lazarus is out and free, all the stones are still there, including the big one. Even though the stones are still there, it is no longer a tomb, just a cave.  What do we know of these kinds of transformations?

As Bill Dols, a friend of mine has written: "The raising of Lazarus is truth, the most profound truth we can know as Christians. That in the darkest, deadest and ugliest points of our lives, the light and voice and presence of Christ are with us calling to us to enter into new life. Not a life where all our problems and tragic circumstances are magically solved, but a life where we don’t have to be entombed by them."

How have you, or are you now experiencing being called forth, unraveled, uncovered, set free? And how are liminal times, those times “in the tomb” also necessary for transformation?

When Jesus raised Lazarus, His beloved friend, from the dead, He instructed those standing around to "unbind him and let him go. "That’s our job as the community of faith—to unbind each other.

"Unbind him and let him go." How many times have you heard this? How many times has it been asked of you?   Offered you? How have you responded? Each one of us is called to participate fully in the liberation of the oppressed.

May your Lenten journey continue, with times of blessing and releasing and healing one another as we travel together.