“So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a head cloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!””
John 11:41-44 NLT
After the people removed the stone that sealed the entrance to Lazarus’ tomb, there was a pause while Jesus spoke publicly with His Father in Heaven. Jesus looked up to heaven as He did this, removing all doubts about who He was conversing with, and from the content of the prayer enabling the people who were standing around the tomb to have an opportunity to finally understand that Jesus had been sent by God. Then perhaps there was another pause before Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out”. How could a body dead and buried for four days hear the call of Jesus? But there came a shuffling noise and at last a body wrapped in grave clothes appeared at the entrance of the tomb. Even the cloth wrapped around his head was still there. What did the people think? Shock? Fear? Wonder? Elation? They froze, not knowing what was going on and what they should do, so Jesus had to tell them to release Lazarus from the strips of cloth. What about the signs of decomposition? What about the smell that Martha was so afraid would be there? Someone would have had to find a robe to cover Lazarus’ nakedness. Did his sisters explode in floods of emotion, their grief replaced by wonder and elation? All the professional mourners suddenly found themselves out of a job. There would have been absolute chaos there for a time, but John’s account in his Gospel dispassionately just gave the facts of what happened.
We can’t even start to imagine the impact that event would have had on the people. We pilgrims read the account factually, though of course still realising that an amazing miracle had taken place. But how would we have felt about the situation had we stood there in the sandals of one of the people standing at the tomb? Often a Biblical message or account is notable not so much by what it said but what it doesn’t say. In a sense, Lazarus and his sisters, dear friends of Jesus, were caught up in an amazing miracle that has touched countless people, then and ever since. Jesus used the opportunity of Lazarus’ illness and subsequent death as a once and for all time demonstration of the power and glory of God. His sisters had the opportunity to turn their faith and belief in Jesus into something even stronger.
God doesn’t have favourites amongst His children. We are all treated the same by our loving Heavenly Father. Lazarus had died and was buried, and his spirit was in Heaven. He had left his human life, and his earthly body, behind and he was now in a place of no more sickness, tears and death, in the presence of God. But the next thing he heard was Jesus calling his name, and his spirit was returned to his body, a body released from death, a body miraculously just as it was before his illness, warts and all. Extrapolating this to all believers who have died, is the next thing they hear when they find themselves in Heaven, the voice of Jesus calling their name? In a timeless eternity, will this be followed by the believer’s spirit being reunited with their resurrected body? A body just like the one Jesus had?
The down side for Lazarus was that he had to die again. But any feelings of resentment that he might have felt would have been replaced by the comfort that through his whole experience, many, perhaps countless, souls had come to know Jesus and believe in Him.
Dear God. You constantly amaze us and we thank You for the faithful men who wrote down what Your Spirit told them to. On our knees today we worship You. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 