Selecting Carefully

Most people are afraid terrified of death. We can’t picture ourselves with grave clothes lying a tomb. A friend once told me that when we died, there was a brick wall of nothingness waiting.

He didn’t see that he was already in that tomb.

We talked this week about Martha, who said she believed in Jesus’ resurrection power, but struggled to open Lazarus’ tomb. What did she believe? After all, what’s more certain than even taxes? Death.

What do I believe?

Death is something in the future, right? It isn’t now for me.

Jesus raised Lazarus to illustrate his authority over death. Death is not the end of the line and Jesus could connect his words with his actions. He came to restore life and freedom.

The mourners had limited belief. His own followers thought Jesus couldn’t heal over a distance and were confident that death was task-master over even the Messiah. They didn’t guess Jesus was the key to life itself.

Lazarus’ story foreshadowed Jesus’ own death. Both were buried in tombs, closed in by stones, wrapped in burial clothes. In each case, there was no hope of life.

But hopelessness is not the locked door that Jesus can not open.

He told the mourners to remove Lazarus’ grave clothes. “Let him loose!” he said.

We’re Lazarus, dead and buried without hope. But Jesus stands at the tomb, rich in power and authority. Death isn’t the final word. Belief is.

Jesus says to us: get out of those grave clothes and start walking. Believe it.

I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

John 12:47