Lazarus – Part 3
John 11:28-44
28When
she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The
Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29And when she heard it,
she rose quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet come into
the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31When
the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly
and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep
there. 32Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell
at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not
have died.” 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come
with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34And
he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to
him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus wept. 36So the Jews
said, “See how he loved him!” 37But some of them said, “Could not he
who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” 38Then
Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay
against it. 39Jesus said, “Take away the
stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this
time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40Jesus
said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed
you would see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the
stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father,
I thank you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear
me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may
believe that you sent me.” 43When he had said these things,
he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44The
man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his
face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind
him, and let him go.”
In most
dramatic fashion, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. After four days in the
tomb we can be certain he was most decidedly dead. There are other people Jesus
raises from death during His ministry, but this story is by far the most
spectacular. Jesus again states why this all took place. It was for the glory
of God and bringing people to faith in the One True God. And I believe
there was yet another reason. Jesus raised Lazarus from death because He loved
Mary and Martha. He had it within His power to relieve their pain and so He
showed His great compassion and gave them back their brother.
“Unbind him, and let him
go.” That is where
my mind rested this morning. The work of Jesus actually unbinds us all. We are
all caught up in our slavery to sin. Jesus comes and breaks our bondage to sin
and death. He is Lord and Master over our final great enemy – death. It must
have been quite a scene. The townspeople go with Mary and Martha to show Jesus
the grave so the number of witnesses to this miracle is large. When Jesus says “Lazarus, come out!”, in
my imagination, he has to hop out
because he had been wrapped in grave cloths. There can be no doubt about the
Lord Jesus now. He is Master over all. Not only did Jesus bring Lazarus back
for more life on earth, He brings us out of the darkness of sin so that our
time left here on earth can be unfettered by bondage to sin. We can live as He
calls rather than as sin demands. Our freedom has been won so we can either live
wrapped in grave cloths, or we can “come out” of the grave and walk in that
amazing freedom. Granted, we probably do a little bit of both (see Romans 7)
but praise be to God that our final disposition is that of a person free from
sin.
Carmen, a
recording artist from several years ago, told this story in most entertaining
fashion. I’ve included a link to that song below. He does a very good job with
this whole story, telling it from the perspective of Lazarus.
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