The Quickened and the Dead

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,..   Ephesians 2:4 (KJV)

The story of Lazarus has always fascinated me.  Lazarus was sick and Jesus delayed going to him.  He could have made it to the bedside of His friend and simply healed him but Jesus waited two days before leaving and by the time that He had arrived Lazarus had been dead four days.  Twice John tells us that Jesus loved Lazarus. This wasn’t just another resident of the city this was a dear friend.  Why did Jesus delay?  He could have simply spoken the word and Lazarus would have been healed as He did for the Centurion’s servant.  There has to be more to this story.  God is pulling back the cover and revealing hidden truth.

Lazarus had two sisters and John makes sure to tell us that Jesus loved them too.  These were special people.  Mary was the woman that came to Jesus and anointed His feet with costly perfume and wiped them with her hair.  They both met Jesus before He came to the house and they both told Jesus that if He had been there my brother would not have died.  They believed that Jesus could heal.  They had seen him heal the sick.  Martha told Jesus that she still believed that whatever He asked God would do it but her faith was not complete because when it came to her dead brother her hope was that her brother would rise again in the resurrection at the last day.  That is like many today who believe that Jesus can do all things but when it come to their circumstance they limit the power of God.

Finally, Jesus is taken to the grave where the body of Lazarus had laid for four days.  They had wrapped him up, laid him in the grave and rolled a stone in front of the entrance.  Lazarus, while mourned, was placed in a dark, cold tomb.  Death had won!  Life was gone. 

But God! 

There are those two words again.  God had a different plan!   Jesus wasn’t winging it and hoping for the best.  He had planned to arrive exactly when He did.  He knew Lazarus was dead before He ever started His journey and you can rest assured that He didn’t come there to mourn.  He came there to help us believe.  Consider John 11:15

“Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.”

In the midst of the darkest night God is still in control.  When the storm is raging and the ship is tossed, God is still in control.  When life has been crushed beneath the weight of deaths call, God is still in control.  That is the message Jesus was teaching us.  There is never a time when God cannot step onto the stage of human affairs and change everything.  Our faith may be incomplete.  Our understanding may fail but none of that hinders God’s mighty plan.

Lazarus was dead, buried for four days, his body rotting, his life gone.  Mary and Martha had given up hope, their tear stained faces had lost their glow as they stood outside the tomb.  They had watched him die, they had wrapped him in the cloth, they had lain in the grave, and they knew he was dead.

But God! 

In the darkness of the tomb a light began to shine.  A voice began to rise and hope began to stir.  A quickening was taking place.  That which was dead heard the call of a voice so kind and tender.  A voice of love and grace that was calling,

“Lazarus, come forth”

There in the darkness of the tomb where death had reigned morning had broken!