There is no binding so tight as the one we wind for ourselves. Others may strap you into a seat or use restraints on your hospital bed, but those are never so confining as the bindings with which we confine ourselves. For the bindings we use on ourselves are generally so snug that we cannot breathe, they are invisible to us, and they are not easily released. Bindings; there is no binding so tight as the one we wind for ourselves.
I hate air travel. I like traveling, I like seeing other places, I like even the thrill of flying, but I hate air travel because it is so confining. You have to stand in line for the security check, you have to stand in line while you board, you have to wait in the aisle of the plane while someone ahead of you is attempting to stuff a huge case into the overhead luggage rack, and then, when you find your seat, it is the middle one of a row of three, so that you have to tuck your elbows in and then wear a seat belt that will be too tight. I hate air travel because it is confining. It involves bindings, and they are uncomfortable. But there is no binding so tight as the one we wind for ourselves.
My granddaughters, Olivia and Jackie, are both Tae Kwon Do students, and have won lots of trophies and belts. They can break a board with their bare hands and can put heavier, stronger boys on the floor with their skills. Lord help the guy that puts the moves on them when they are older! What grandpa has learned is that Olivia will permit him to give her a hug; it’s just what grandpas do, after all. But Jackie resists; Jackie will deflect every effort at affection with a kick, a chop, or a wriggle. Jackie does not want to be confined, even if it is love that is binding her. But there is no binding so tight as the one we wind for ourselves.
Lazarus, the friend of Jesus and the brother of Mary and Martha, had died. Word had gone to Jesus that His friend was sick and that He should come immediately. But Jesus was in no rush. He stayed two days longer in the place where He was before He set out for Bethany. And so when He arrived, He found that Lazarus was already dead, in fact had been dead for at least four days. Bound in his shroud, hands and feet and face covered with strips of cloth. A binding that everyone presumed would never come loose. Who could do anything for Lazarus now? He was bound with bindings of cloth and worse; he was bound in death’s dark prison. No way out. Or so they thought.
But remember: there is no binding so tight as the one we wind for ourselves. And so listen to the others who were there, and see how they have bound themselves.
Listen to Lazarus’ sister Martha, for example. Martha came out to meet Jesus; I suspect there was fire in her eye, as she confronted Him out on the street: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Martha is bound up by some anger, isn’t she? She is angry with Jesus because, in her mind, He is late. And who knows but what she is also angry with herself; maybe if she had gone to get Jesus … maybe if she had sent a more urgent message … maybe this, maybe that. Martha is feeling anxiety. We all wish in hindsight that we had done more. We feel guilty. We are binding ourselves with anger and anxiety.
And not only Martha, but also her sister Mary, who had stayed behind. Mary is described as having stayed home to weep. Her friends had come out to visit her, and surrounded her in her house. When Mary heard that Jesus had come, she got up quickly to go talk with Him, and everyone saw that as she went she continued to weep. And when Mary got to Jesus, she echoed what her sister had already said, “If you had been her, my brother would not have died.” So powerful was her emotion, so profound her grief, that it even moved Jesus to tears. (Thus providing every Sunday School child who has to memorize Bible verses with the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept”!) But Mary, you see, is bound up. Mary is bound up in grief. She has friends around her, consoling her, but it has done no good. Mary is bound up in grief. She is consumed with grief. All she does is to weep. Her sister Martha argues a bit, makes observations, even speaks a little about her faith. But Mary has nothing, nothing but her binding grief. Surrounded by friends, but still alone. Many of us have been in that condition. We just seem to be wrapped up in our grief and cannot get out.
But then Jesus, at the tomb. He commands, “Take away the stone”. He prays. And He cries with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” What a sight greeted their eyes! They stood around the open door of the cave, not sure what to expect, but out comes a man. A man walking in grave bindings, if you call that walking. He is hobbled, he is wrapped up, he is bound. And the words of Jesus rang out for him as for Martha and for Mary and for us: “Unbind him and let him go.” Unbind him and let him go, for he is alive. The power of God has done for him what God always wants to do – to give life. And the mercy of God has given him what God always wants to give us – release from the things that bind us. Release from guilt, release from anxiety, release from grief, release from everything that holds us back.
Your brother Richard Dean Lewis experienced some bindings during his years. I know only one small segment of his life experience, but I know a young man with much potential, with a heart for spiritual things, and with an interest in moving forward in his life. Richard came to this church some years ago, having moved into this neighborhood from Boston, and, if memory serves, joined us on the very first Sunday he worshipped with us. That was unusual, and so I went to visit Richard and learn more about him. There were, over the course of the next months, several visits, as Richard wanted to talk about his finances and his family and, most of all, his ambition. He told me that he wanted to enter the ministry, but needed to finish some other academic work before he could go to seminary. We looked at all of that together, and thought about some possibilities. Richard participated for a while in a Ministers-in-Training group I put together at this church. We thought we were headed in the right direction.
But there were always bindings of one sort and another. Richard was bound by finances. He was tied up in trying to find work. He was under the binding of some unresolved relationship issues. And I recall, too, that Richard sometimes experienced a stifling depression.
We all tried to do something for him. We all attempted to help in various ways. David Haynes, most of all, provided him a place to live and spiritually sound friendship. You, his sisters and his family, cared for him and worked to understand him. I am told that only recently there was a family reunion that brought him together with many he had not seen for a long time, and that he found great joy and release in that. It feels to me as though in recent days the Spirit of the living God was at work in Richard’s life to unbind him, to release him from some of the burdens he had been struggling with. We do not know, nor shall we ever know, all the confinements he felt. But take heart, for in God’s own way and in God’s own time, Richard was feeling let go, unbound, and released.
And so lift up your hearts. Let him go, as the Lord says. Let him go, unbind him, and let go also of the things that bind you. Like Martha with her anxiety and guilt, the Lord is able to say to you, “Believe, and you will see the glory of God.” Like Mary with her undiminished grief, the Lord says, “I loved him. You loved him, and I love him too. He is not lost. Do not grieve.”
Lift up your hearts. Unbind him and let him go. Unbind yourselves and let yourselves be free. For you have done what you could, but none of us can untie the bindings that others place on themselves. Only God can take away from us what we put on ourselves.
And so, hear the good news today. Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. Those who believe, though they die, will live again. Richard Dean Lewis believed; he trusted this Christ for life eternal. And thus gift he has. Life eternal; freedom from worry, loose from burdens, relationships free, the spirit soaring.
There is no binding so tight as the one we put on ourselves. But the command of Jesus will always speak to us, “Unbind … let go.” Yes, Lord, as you have unbound Lazarus, as you have unbound Richard Dean Lewis, so unbind us all. Unbind us of guilt. Unbind us of anxiety. Unbind us of grief. Unbind us of death. Unbind us of all things that keep us from You. Unbind us all, and let us go.
