“Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.””
John 11:38-39 NKJV
Imagine the scene. It was a place where caves had been hewn in the rock face to provide burial places for individuals or families. Sometimes these tombs were quite elaborate and consisted of several rooms, but each would have been sealed with a rounded stone that sat in a groove, preventing access by wild animals. The poorest in the society, who couldn’t afford such a burial place, would have been interred in a shaft dug in a designated field. Anyway, Jesus went to Lazarus’ tomb accompanied by an unknown but significant number of people including Martha. What happened next was unheard of because Jesus told those who were there to “Take away the stone”. Martha, ever the practical one, protested that there would be a bad smell coming from the tomb because Lazarus had been dead for four days. There were no doubts in anyone’s mind that Lazarus was really dead and his body had started to decompose, something that happened rapidly in that warm climate.
There comes a point in everyone’s life when they die. No matter how hard people try to stop it, ageing is a natural process and our bodies will one day wear out and be of no more use to us. This was not what God intended when He created us, and the first records in Genesis indicate lives extending into hundreds of years. But there came a point when a life span was expected to be “three score years and ten”, or eighty if the person had the strength (Psalm 90:10). These days, the average life span is in the late seventies for a man and the early eighties for a woman, but some die much younger and others exceed a hundred. After death, a body buried in a grave will decompose and eventually end up with skeletal remains. The Jews were horrified by the thought of cremation, assuming that a person’s physical body, regardless of its condition or what remained, would one day be physically involved in the resurrection of the dead.
So we have the scenario with Jesus and a number of people standing outside a tomb, watching as the stone is removed. The thoughts of those around Jesus could almost be heard. Thoughts such as “What on earth is Jesus up to now”? But did anyone expect what was about to happen?
We pilgrims read the account almost dispassionately. We didn’t know Lazarus or his sisters. But we do know Jesus, and recognise and honour Him, the Son of God. Because God has the interests of His children at heart, we feel a warmth within our spirits as we observe the scene outside the tomb. Jesus was about to demonstrate a miracle so amazing that it changed the lives of those in Jerusalem at that time and it brought into perspective that our God is all-powerful and has the ability to overturn all the preconceptions of the worldly people around us. What are we expecting God to do today? There may be a stench emanating from the sin and death around us, but that will never faze our miracle working God.
Dear Lord Jesus. You are the Saviour of the world. There is no other way to Heaven and we journey on to be with You. Our journey through life will attract the stench of the wickedness around us, but through Your blood we are washed as white as snow. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 