By: Rev. Gerry Weesner,
Maples United Methodist Church
“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 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. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with 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 (NIV).
Martha had been the first to greet Jesus, and their conversation is profoundly significant. Martha greeted Jesus with a kind of reprimand: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But Jesus answered, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Therefore, Jesus continued, anyone who believes in him “will never die.” This sentence was a challenge to Martha. He demanded a response to what he had just said. Jesus asked Martha, “Do you believe this?” Jesus’ question could have been answered with a simple, ‘Yes” but Martha with deep faith answered, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
First, Jesus prayed, so that all those gathered around could hear him. And then, the scripture says, “Jesus shouted with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’” And the corpse, swathed in the garments of death, rose up and came out. Jesus ordered that they take away his grave clothes. The reason Jesus shouted was because he was calling Lazarus back to life with the authority of God. Lazarus was called back to life in a rejuvenated body that had begun to decay.
Augustine once remarked that if Jesus had not said Lazarus’ name all would have come out from the graves. We see that scenario in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
Tradition says that Lazarus was thirty years old when Jesus resurrected him and he lived for thirty years afterward. Because of Jesus’ resurrection of Lazarus we can have confidence that we too will be resurrected to life when Christ returns for us to take us to heaven to be with him eternally.
