Death Rags

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” (John 11: 38 – 43)

It seems strange to be reading the story of Lazarus several weeks before Christmas when the birth of Jesus Christ is the reason we celebrate this season every year. However, without His birth, there would not be a story of Lazarus, except for how he lived his life, died at an early age, and left a family behind. Yet, with the birth of Jesus we have this miraculous story of how this man Lazarus died, was buried for four days, and God raised him from the dead. A lot of preachers and Sunday school teachers tell how this story symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Yet I see something else in this story.

I see the love Jesus, who is God in human form on earth, has for all creation. He was deeply moved at the sorrow and grief experienced by the family and friends of Lazarus. He loves each and everyone of us with a love that only a father can have.

I see a Savior who has come to lead us out from a darkened world. A Savior whose love can free us from the bondage of drugs, sex, alcohol, pornography, filthy language, hatred, pain, sorrow, or whatever ugliness we have sold our souls to. A Savior whose power can roll away the stone of bondage, free the chains that bind us, the "rags of death" that constrain us, and the cloth that blinds us from seeing God's love for us. “For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death…in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me.” (Rom 7:11-13)

Yet the story doesn’t end there. Jesus sent others in to free Lazarus. He allowed others the joy of seeing the restoration of God and smell the fragrant aroma of life. He allowed others to share in the wondrous feeling of seeing someone dead in sin, come alive, and to see that person as they discover they are a new creature, alive in the power of God through Jesus Christ. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:1-4)

Once alive and free Lazarus had the choice of living as one who is alive and free, or as one still bound to the chains of death; forever remembering the things in the tomb that caused his death, or forever remembering his life anew. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it be so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”

In remembrance of the Christ child, what life are you living? Are you still stuck in the tomb? Are you willing to step outside the tomb, reach for His hand and say. “Yes, I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and that God raised him from the dead”(Rom 10:9) Do you long to live outside the darkness? Do you long to feel the radiant presence of the King? Choose this day whom you believe and forever celebrate the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel; God with us.