John 8
31So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
Discipleship and freedom go hand in hand. But freedom from what, for what and by whom? We need freedom from all that holds us back from hearing and doing God’s word. These are our addictions, our inordinate attractions, our old ways of doing things. We know what is right, we want to do it, but we are tied up. In John 11, when Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave, he may have come back to life but he wasn’t able to function very well. He was still bound up by his grave clothes. Those wrappings were necessary for his burial, but were now an impediment to the new life that he was being called to.
John 11
43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”
Now we know what we are to be free from, but what is the purpose of that freedom and how shall we achieve it? For that we look at the last sentence of verse 44. “Jesus said to them, “loose him, and let him go.”. Jesus was speaking to his family and friends that were standing by him, his community. I’m sure that Jesus who had just brought him up from the dead was more than able to have those bindings dissolve as he was being raised. But no, that’s not how He chose to do it. He chose community. Because I believe that is not merely the how, but the why also. We are to be set free by community and for community. We each have gifts that the other needs. We are a puzzle that only makes sense when bound together. We ARE the body of Christ.
So how do we do that? People don’t walk around with actual grave clothes for us to pick at. For that we go back to the first passage of John that I mentioned above. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. We are to be living in the word ourselves in such a way that we can speak truth to those closest to us. That is what evangelization and prophecy are all about…truth telling.
We don’t have to rip bandages or force change, we merely have to be obedient to God. In every situation say what He puts in our heart to say and do what He is asking of us without consideration for the outcome, let the Lord take care of the results. We are so often fearful of losing the favor of others, that we hold our tongue or don’t do what we are being called to do. We are afraid of losing people, but those that would leave were never meant for us anyway. We need to continue praying, but allow them to go so that they may find the community that they were meant for and real healing can begin.
You can listen to Fr. Lauer speak on this subject at our LENTEN page.