Jesus hadn’t come in time. At least it didn’t look that way. Martha was a little angry. Maybe a little hurt.
“If you had been here my brother, your friend, would not have died.” But she still hoped for a miracle. “I know that even now, if you ask, God will answer.”
I’ve heard this story dozens of time. But, every once in a while, God reveals Himself a little differently when we listen. Today as the story was read, tears rolled down my face. Not for Lazarus. Not for Martha. They were not even sympathetic tears that flowed as Jesus wept. No, today as I listened and read these words, I was seeing another kind of death.
Most days I try NOT to be Martha. I am trying to learn to be more like her sister, Mary, and to just BE with Jesus. But today Martha became a bit of hero. A role model perhaps. In this story she wanted nothing more than to see the dead come back to life. Perhaps she was a little selfish. This was her brother and she wanted him back. So she relentlessly pursued Jesus for life.
I work with dead men. Many times the ones God calls me toward have been locked up, pushed away, pronounced dead. They have messed up one too many times and the world has rolled the stone over the grave. Worse yet, the church has come behind them and sealed the tomb.
“He is a bad seed.”
“He will take everyone down with him. Stay away.”
“He is not worth your time.”
“He will never amount to anything.”
“He’s too far gone.”
“He stinks.”
But God…
We forget that it is God who is responsible for numbering our days. Life and death are in HIS hands. And we are not dead until HE says we are dead.
Sometimes it is for these, the ones whom the world has cast into the tomb, God comes along and says “move the stone.” And like Martha, even though I want to believe, I say… “but God you know it is rotten in there, right? He’s been dead a long time. Are you sure about this?”
I wish that I could tell you that I am always brave when God calls me into the ugliness of the tomb. But I’m not. And some days it is difficult to believe that anything will change. I mean, dead is dead, right? But Martha had the faith to believe.
And God says to her “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”
While the stone is being removed from the tomb, Jesus starts thanking the Father. He didn’t wait until He saw Lazarus raised from the dead. He is praising God for hearing His prayers. God wants us to remember thankfulness even before we see change in the circumstances. There are days when I am sitting in the lobby at the jail and my prayers are more like “God, do you see me here? Is anything EVER going to change? Why do you have me coming to this tomb every week?”
Instead, my prayers should be, “Thank you Father that you saw beyond the walls into the heart of this young man. Thank you for seeing the life still beating inside of his chest. Thank you for keeping him alive one more day in this place of death. God, be patient with me as I am patient with him. And give me the courage to let the stench of his brokenness get into my nostrils while we wait for you to breathe the fresh air of your spirit into his lungs once again.”
What does it take for death to be conquered? We have become complacent about death. We have accepted it as a fact of life. And it is – now. But this is not the way God intended it. It is by sin that death entered the world. But sin was defeated on the cross and it is the cross that must shake these dead men’s bones.
John tells us that Jesus, groaning, came to the grave. That word groaning has many connotations to us but the literal translation of this word means that He was indignant. God was angry at death and at the sin that caused it.
“Lazarus, come forth!” Jesus called him out of his physical death back into life. Are you willing to stand with the Father and call people out of their spiritual death? Notice that the Scripture says Jesus called out with a loud voice. We cannot be timid when we are coming against death. Whose name should be on your tongue? “____, come forth!” Fill in the blank. Who in your family? Who in your workplace? Which of your friends does death have a hold on? Who in your world has been given over prematurely to death? Can you see beyond the stone?
There is more to this story. “He that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes… and Jesus said ‘loose him and let him go.’” You see, just like there is a stench that goes along with death, there are also the bonds of death. Our sin has us bound. It has us tied us so we can only shuffle along. God says, release him. He is not useful to me while he is still wrapped up as though he were dead.
But here is what I noticed. Who was Jesus speaking to? I mean, God just raised Lazarus from the dead, surely he could have removed the grave clothes too, couldn’t He? We see this when Jesus is resurrected a few chapters later. But He speaks to those who are standing by watching. “loose him and let him go.” They are not running to help. They are just standing there watching Lazarus trip over the strips of cloth hanging from him.
We often hold on to the past. We hold on to the wrong that has been done. And in doing this we hold onto a little piece of the death. We don’t want to forgive. We don’t want to forget. We don’t want to release. We want to have control over what happens next. But God says, loose him and let him go. Trust me that I can handle this live one! Trust me that I am sovereign. Trust me that if I brought him out of the tomb, then I will also get glory in his life.
Lord, help me to relentlessly pursue life for those around me. Help me to be thankful for what you are doing even when I can’t see it. Help me to cry out on behalf of those who have lost their voice. And help me to believe that you are at work on their behalf. And God, when you forgive, help me to forgive so that release can come and you will get ALL of the glory!