Anything Is Possible: How Nine Miracles of Jesus Reveal God's Love for YouSample

Day 5: The Raising of Lazarus

One of the hardest things to wrap our minds around in the account of Lazarus’ death is that Jesus knew Lazarus was sick and did not rush to heal him, He waited. This did not mean that Jesus did not love Lazarus or his sisters and it didn’t mean that Jesus was cruel or lazy. It shows us that God’s ways are not our ways. God’s love and His apparent cooperation in our lives are not related.

Jesus knew that no one would doubt that Lazarus was dead after being in the tomb for four days and that was a perfect platform to point to His own resurrection to come.

As Jesus approaches Lazarus’ tomb, we see that his sister Martha runs out to meet Jesus. She is so focused on her present circumstances that she misses what Jesus is saying. She is thinking about her brother, but Jesus is thinking about all of mankind. He tells her that He is the resurrection and the life. He is not just a man who can raise someone from the grave, but He is the author of life and the conqueror of death.

Jesus’s full humanity is on display as He sits with Martha and Mary and their friends and He weeps as they weep. He is deeply sorrowful over the death of His friend and at the same time, He is righteously wrathful at death as our enemy. He knows we were created for life with God, not death.

After Jesus sits with the heartbroken, He arises and calls out Lazarus from the grave. The stinky, mummy-wrapped man hobbles out of the grave and Jesus commands for his friends to unwrap him because Lazarus is no longer a dead man.

If you are in Christ, you have been called out of the grave. You don’t need to wear your grave clothes anymore. They stink! You don’t have to do the things that you used to do, because you’re not the person that you used to be.

Jesus tells his friends to unwrap him, because he can’t do it himself. We were created to be in community because we need each other. We need help to repent from our sins and live as people who have crossed from death to life.

Pray with someone you trust, confess your sins and repent from them.