“Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.” Then, Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” John 11 V 40
Do you have any areas of your life that you would prefer to keep covered? Are there situations or circumstances in your past that you want to hide? Are you afraid of letting the light into those areas of darkness because you are afraid of the ugliness and stench of your former days? There are times when we get so caught up in our mess that we fail to perceive the immensity of the transforming power of Jesus in our lives. The Jews would have regarded Lazarus’s body as ritually unclean and not to be touched under any circumstances. Not only would the stench of Lazarus’s decaying body have been present in the tomb, but no light would have penetrated the covering stone and the tomb would have been in total darkness. This place was the embodiment of death from which there could be no escape.
On reaching Lazarus’s tomb, despite Martha’s protests that after four days the smell of Lazarus’s body will be overwhelming, Jesus commands the stone be removed and calls to Lazarus to come out of the tomb. At Jesus’s word, still bound by his burial cloths, Lazarus comes out. To the witnesses at Bethany, his raising was nothing short of miraculous, even more so as the Jewish understanding was that the soul lingered with the corpse for three days, until the body burst open, then it left the body. Jesus tells the onlookers to unbind Lazarus and let him go free from the captivity of death.
So, what can we learn about how Jesus responds to us today? When he says, “Roll away the stone”, this is grace Himself declaring “roll away”, the written law, with all its demands, all of its burdens, all of its penalties. Roll it away so that light may come to the darkest, most stinking place of your life so that LIFE may flow. So that what is dead may be transformed by grace and that all the world can see what the power of the son of God will do. Lazarus was literally being brought back from physical death. But remember all of the promises about the Messiah that we have talked about through the Gospel of John and the prophecies that they echo: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light….’ There was no light in the tomb because the stone was in front of it. This is a picture of the law that was written on tablets of stone, 2 Corinthians 3:6 tells us, “not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life”. In the tomb the law stops the light of God's grace from bringing life and keeps people in darkness and it stinks.
Allow the light of God’s love to flood every part of your life today. Where you have felt condemned by the demands of the law turn to Jesus with confidence knowing that he has provided the way for you to walk free. You are no longer in bondage, remove the burial clothes and the guilt and shame that you have held onto and walk into the light of his love for you.
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Who Do You Say I Am Series – Exchange Church Belfast 2020