Lazarus

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.  “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

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.

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, 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: 21-27, 33-38, 41-44 NIV

One day this spring in church, the pastor asked us to turn to someone near us and share a good thing that had happened that week. Having just sang a song that was about Lazarus being raised from the dead made me think of the parallel of abundant life coming out of what seemed like a barren desert. At both the end of February and early March, I was blessed enough to see a huge field of wildflowers in the dry, stark landscape of Death Valley.  

For those not familiar with the Biblical account of Lazarus, here’s a brief synopsis but I would encourage you to read the entire account as there is SO MUCH more than I can share here. Mary, one of Jesus faithful followers, had a brother named Lazarus who was very sick and died.  Jesus went to Bethany where he empathetically cried with Mary and others, feeling their sorrow.  Then he had them roll away the tomb stone that had been placed there four days earlier. Jesus prayed aloud, thanking the Father for having heard him so that those around him might believe that He, Jesus, had been sent by the Father. Then Jesus called for Lazarus to come out.  The man who had been dead for four days was resurrected, alive again!

In some respects, we are all Lazarus.  There are times that we feel dead inside due to difficult life circumstances or poor choices (sin).  We grieve a lost one or a lost dream.  We struggle with health or relational issues. We feel like there is no hope and feel far from God.  Yet just as the seeds of flowers lay fallow for years on the desert floor of Death Valley, there is life stirring in us to burst forth at just the right time.  Jesus is our hope, not just for resurrection leading to eternal life, but the resurrection of hope, joy, and peace when we struggle with the hard things of this world.

Though I truly hope that some of you may get to see an incredible “superbloom” in Death Valley (they only come every 10 to 15 years), my greater hope is that you come to see that Jesus is life, both now and eternal.  That your life can become a series of superblooms culminating in heavenly life after earthly death.