Article September 7, 1935 Issue

"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."

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