Unwrapping Lazarus
What if Lazarus had been like, “nah. I’m good in here” and didn’t come out?
What if he had just stayed put when Jesus called, for fear of being insufficient or for want of control over the circumstances?
What if Lazarus had said, “what imma come out for? You already let me die once. Imma live just to die again one day? Why would I do that?”
Some of us are so entangled in the pains of the past, in our own hurts, in our own traumas that hearing Jesus say, “come out” sounds to us like another opportunity to be hurt rather than a call to fully live.
Some of us heard and obeyed and came from the pain but are still walking around, wrapped in death clothes, tangled up in the PTSD, unwilling to be free unless we do it ourselves. But we can’t.
Lazarus neither came out of death on his own nor walked out of the cave on his own. He didn’t even take his own death wrappings off. Jesus said “unwrap him.” He needed help.
He needed the assistance of real, living human beings to escape the trauma of death, to be loosed fully from its grips.
Hear me: Jesus did not go into the cave. He called. Lazarus made a choice to listen. Jesus did not unwrap Lazarus. Lazarus did not unwrap himself.
My point: get a therapist.
Some of us have been dead for so long we don’t know that life is possible. It is.
Some of us have grown accustomed to those death clothes, we enjoy wearing them, and are fighting everyone who is trying to help us unwrap and just stop stinking. Better is available. Excellence is possible.
Some of us are so afraid of the possibility of being hurt again that we’re hiding in graves that we made for ourselves, afraid to live, unwilling to risk the chance of pain. Get out and live.
And some of us are walking around, dead inside. Pretending to live but spooked by everything and everyone outside of our control. Demanding that people follow us - without any clear idea where we’re going, we just know we gotta get out of here - in our perpetual flight mode. Fearful of being discovered dead on your feet, fearful of being forced to live without control, fearful of everything that is life.
And these... we can’t unwrap this on our own. Jesus is already calling us out. Jesus is already saying to people qualified to help us, “unwrap them.” But we’re looking in graveyards for help living and that ain’t it.
Lazarus really died.
Your trauma is real.
Your pain is real.
Your past is real.
But you do not have to stay in its grips. No. You don’t got this. No. You can’t control this. No. You’re not handling it. No. You need help.
Come out. Let someone unwrap you.