Lazarus: From the Hebrew “Eleazar” (God helped)
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “take away the stone” he said. “But Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been in there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. ….Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped in strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” (JOHN 11:38-44)
This sculpture is a depiction of Lazarus, the close friend of Jesus, who became sick and eventually died because Jesus “delayed”. After Jesus performed a greater healing than just removing his illness (He brought him back from the dead) Lazarus must have stumbled out of his tomb, wrapped up in his constricting grave clothes. Jesus instructed his friends to “unbind him” which serves as a powerful image of the redemptive function that we can perform in each other’s lives. God is the one who brings life from death, but we, as Christians, need the help of others to become free of the things that entangle us and keep us from dancing and leaping.
In the background is a skull. The skull serves as a reminder of the fact that death has entered our world and is an ever-present reality. Although we still groan within our earthly bodies, we have the image of Lazarus emerging from the grave as an evidence that death does not have the final word for the child of God.
