Come Out!

Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother [Lazarus, who had died]. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you." 

Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise." 

Martha said to him, "I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day." 

Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 

She said to him, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world." (John 11:19-27)

We all know what comes next.  Jesus raises Lazarus from his tomb.  Does Jesus raise us from our tombs? Are we like Lazarus in graves or tombs we have created for ourselves – dug with our own hands or built brick by brick?  Are we in dark caves we’ve carved ourselves with exits blocked by stones of anger, hate, bitterness, and spite? Do we need to be raised unbound from those feelings and then raised from the dead to leave our tombs and graves of darkness, perhaps despair?   Many of us can answer these questions with a simple “yes.”

Many of us have the stench of death-like feelings, and we’re tied hand and foot.   Our faces are unrecognizable caused by cloths of negativity and self-pity wrapped around our faces.   Jesus tells us to take away the stones and come into the light.  He asks us to hear him.  He reminds us that the Spirit of God dwells within us.

Let’s recognize Christ as our bulldozer to roll away the stones keeping us locked in self-imposed, stinking prisons of fear and spiritless life.  Jesus shouts at us, "Come out!"

Deacon David Pierce