"Loose him, and let him go"

LAURA M. DOWNEY

When Jesus heard of the sickness of Lazarus of Bethany he could, of course, have healed him by a word; but may he not have waited because he knew how God was to be glorified by this happening? How was God to be glorified in this event? Through the proof given by Jesus that both sickness and death are unreal. Every time a demonstration is made in Christian Science God is glorified, for it is thereby shown that the evil, whatever its nature, is untrue, therefore unreal.

When Jesus reached Bethany, Lazarus was, in belief, dead and buried. Martha, and later Mary too, said, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." They did not yet know that the Christ, Truth, is ever present, and that therefore it is impossible that life should die. Our Leader says (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 75), "Jesus restored Lazarus by the understanding that Lazarus had never died, not by an admission that his body had died and then lived again."

Jesus came to the grave and found it closed with a stone. He ordered it to be removed, and then he prayed, not a prayer of petition or pleading, but of thanksgiving and affirmation. Then he called, "Lazarus, come forth," and Lazarus came forth "bound hand and foot with graveclothes." Who had bound Lazarus with graveclothes? Most probably those who loved him most, and who believed him to be dead. They were accepting his death as irrevocable, and binding him fast with this false belief. In obedience to the Master's command they were to "loose him, and let him go."

How often we bind a dear one with the graveclothes of a belief in sickness, sin, lack, or other discords, even death itself! In our loving anxiety for him we either think that one or more of these errors have taken hold of him, or we fear that they may do so. Christ calls to him, and, hearing, he responds, though yet bound with graveclothes. The Christ also bids us, "Loose him, and let him go," and through his obedience and ours is his hope of freedom realized.

Parents, too, often bind their children by assuming for them a false belief of responsibility. They may believe that they themselves are the children of the Father-Mother, God, but the material evidence of the parentage of their own children is so convincing to them that they may fail to see that those whom they call their own children have in their real being exactly the same parentage as themselves—they are all, in reality, the children of God. Jesus said, "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Parents must learn not to bind their children with the graveclothes of a false belief. They must wisely "loose" them and let them go, destroying their own fears and seeing them, at all times, as under divine guidance and protection.

The world in general at the present moment is bound with the graveclothes of belief in financial depression, economic and political upheaval, fear of conflict, and pernicious nationalism. Are men hearing the call of the Christ and responding to it? Who is going to unwind the graveclothes? Men bind themselves and one another with them, rendering each and all helpless to take any useful action, until the truth, as taught in Christian Science, penetrates their consciousness, and by its power the snarls are unwound, and the Master's command, "Loose him, and let him go," is obeyed.

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