“Loose Him, And Let Him Go”

“Loose him, and let him go,” were the clarion words of Christ Jesus at the sepulcher of Lazarus. We read in the eleventh chapter of John that, before those commanding words were spoken, “he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin.” The question arises, If Christ Jesus could raise the dead who had so long lain in the tomb of mortal belief, why did he not set him wholly free to begin with? Why was Lazarus bound hand and foot with graveclothes? Was it because of the belief of the people, who were bound so firmly in their belief of death, wrapped around and around with the graveclothes of their thought of his mortality that, until they should see and acknowledge the freedom of the risen man, he did not appear free to their belief? His release from the graveclothes was likewise the healing of the mortal belief of the people in his death.

Like Thomas, they must have proof, and Christ Jesus gave it to them. When they saw the dead rise, their belief of death changed to one of life. Before this, the belief had been slowly, almost imperceptibly yielding, perhaps, for in the forty-first verse we read, “Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid.” The stone—the obstacle of their unbelief—was rolled away, and their hearts were partially prepared for what followed, so that when the command came, “Loose him, and let him go,” they obeyed. But the “loosing” was much more than merely unwrapping the swaddling garments of the grave; it was the great and mighty freeing of the mentality from the belief of death. Mrs. Eddy says in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 75), “Had Jesus believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his body, the Master would have stood on the same plane of belief as those who buried the body, and he could not have resuscitated it.”

His own and the belief of others that life was material and subject to death had “buried” Lazarus, in more than one sense of the word, until he seemed entirely “buried” by mortal belief in death.

In the twenty-fifth chapter of Isaiah we read, “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things. . . . And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.” In what mountain is it that the Lord of hosts will do this mighty thing? It is no doubt in the mountain of His holiness, the “mountain” where Jesus the Christ went so often to pray; not the visible, tangible pile of earth, but the height of understanding, the knowledge of the Lord.

And what is the “face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations”? Is it not the belief in mortality? This is the “vail” that seemingly hides from us all the splendors of eternity and infinite good, the “vail” of the flesh, that parts the seemingly seen from the seemingly unseen. When Christ Jesus had risen from the dead, demonstrated his understanding of the immortality of life in God, he walked with his disciples, and “their eyes were holden” that they did not know him, though their hearts burned within them. What was it that hid him from their sight but the “vail that is spread over all nations,” the veil of mortal belief? Could we for a moment rid ourselves of this veil, what wonders we should behold, and what joys we should know! In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, on page 428: “The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal. We must hold forever the consciousness of existence, and sooner or later, through Christ and Christian Science, we must master sin and death. The evidence of man’s immortality will become more apparent, as material beliefs are given up and the immortal facts of being are admitted.”

Christ Jesus began his demonstrations over matter in its more simple forms. His first triumph, recorded by John, is the turning of water into wine at a marriage feast. This recorded miracle has a spiritual significance that is deeper than its outside seeming. It would seem that Jesus at the beginning of his ministry did not shun the world or its simple affairs, though he did conquer all material beliefs. When he turned the water into wine, it may have seemed absurd to the onlookers, but evidently there was enough belief amongst the servants to comply with his command to fill the waterpots with water, and then to draw out and bear to the governor of the feast. When the truth of being blesses even the most common human act, need, or desire, it blesses it to utmost perfection, and when the Christ sets the seal upon joy, it turns the typical water into the sweetest draught of immortality.

The daughter of Jairus was raised from death soon after that appearance of mortality had set its seal upon her. Jesus knew she had neither lived nor died in mortal sense, and he knew perfectly well that she was even then keenly alive in Spirit; so in spite of all material laws and apparent evidences, he took her by the hand, and his “Talitha cumi” was enough. The little girl arose, and evidently went her way, and the Master went his way, after commanding that they give the newly risen from the dead “something to eat.” One of Christ Jesus’ last commands to Peter was, “Feed my sheep,” “Feed my lambs,” and it is likely that the “meat” given to the daughter of Jairus meant far more of spiritual sustenance than of the material. When the widow’s son was being borne to his grave Christ Jesus restored him to life. This shows a little greater depth of mortal belief; a little longer period had the widow’s son been held in the chains of death, when his understanding was open to the word of command, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.” And immediately “he that was dead sat up, and began to speak.” Just what his words were is not recorded, but it is stated that the people “glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.” Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 429): “Jesus said (John viii. 51), ‘If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.’ That statement is not confined to spiritual life, but includes all the phenomena of existence. Jesus demonstrated this, healing the dying and raising the dead.” When will Christian Scientists avail themselves of the might of Spirit, the power of God, to overcome not only part of the sickness and sin, but all of it? With sickness and sin conquered, where would death be but obliterated?

“Loose him, and let him go,” said Christ Jesus of Lazarus, and this command is applicable to all who stand around, seeking to bind with graveclothes the spiritual truth of immortality. Death should not seem one whit more real than sickness or sin. We are called upon daily to do the “greater works” of which Christ Jesus spoke, and our greater work is overcoming death in ourselves, overcoming our own belief in our own mortality, and when we have overcome this great red dragon for ourselves, then shall we be fitted to go on and on to still greater works. What these will be we know not now, but we shall know when the time comes.

Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 427): “Called to the bed of death, what material remedy has man when all such remedies have failed? Spirit is his last resort, but it should have been his first and only resort. The dream of death must be mastered by Mind here or hereafter. Thought will waken from its own material declaration, ‘I am dead,’ to catch this trumpet-word of Truth, ‘There is no death, no inaction, diseased action, overaction, nor reaction.’ Life is real and death is the illusion.” Thus we see the eternal force of Christ Jesus’ statement at the tomb of Lazarus: “Loose him, and let him go.”