Wisdom's Call: 30 Days in the House of LifeVoorbeeld

WISDOM’S QUICKENING

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. “Remove the stone,” Jesus said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. I know that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so that they may believe you sent me.” After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.” ( John 11:38–44)

Lies we’ve believed about ourselves wrap around us like grave clothes. They swaddle us in a death grip, telling us we must live this false identity in a house of death and decay. Yet once we hear even the faintest echo of Wisdom’s call, our eyes, once closed in death, pop open and interrogate our surroundings, and suddenly we want to live!

We look down at our grave clothes and smell their stench. All at once, we see what we once were and what we actually are. Wisdom’s call has snatched our blinders and shown us the reality of the house of the dead.

But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Cor. 15:20–22)

Once we come alive in the grave we’ve dug for ourselves, we cry to be lifted out. And when the Spirit opens our eyes, our grave will be empty, just like His.

No longer dead in Adam, we are now alive in Christ. He unbinds the grave clothes that hold us, and we come Home.

This is what it is to approach the threshold of Wisdom’s house.