All the miracles Jesus performed for those who needed him are mindboggling and defy our understanding. From turning water into wine, to healing a guard’s severed ear, Jesus never misses the opportunity to not just do good to people but to also display God’s glory to others. We certainly see that in the incredible raising of Lazarus from the dead, a miracle that is arguably one of the most personal for Jesus given his close friendship with this family.
On a recent reread, however, I was struck by a certain detail in the account and its parallels to our own walks with Christ.
By this point in the story, Jesus has arrived in Bethany after the pleadings of Mary and Martha to come help their brother, but he’s arrived too late and Lazarus is already dead. Jesus, fully knowing that he’s going to raise Lazarus from the dead and that incredible joy is about to untold, still feels the full weight of sorrow that death brings and weeps for his friends. He takes the time to feel the full force and hurt of such a loss.
Then he goes to work. Out loud, he prays to God, declaring before he even goes to work who the credit and the glory belongs to. No matter what happens next, Jesus makes sure everyone standing around knows exactly who is in control. Then he gets to work.
“Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!” (John 11:43-44)
I’ve read this story a thousand times, and only this last time did I consider how Lazarus exited his tomb.
He doesn’t skip or run out. He doesn’t saunter. He’s not yelling “hello!” and waving to Jesus. His body was prepared for burial and it shows in how he leaves the grave. He’s wrapped from head to toe in cloth. Even his face is covered. I can’t imagine that he was able to walk gracefully or easily, so it’s no wonder Jesus’ next command is for someone to go help and unwrap him.
The grave clothes needed to come off for Lazarus to embrace the new life he’d just been given.
The miracle of being saved from our sin is the most incredible thing a person can experience. It changes not only who you are but the entire trajectory of your life. The only other comparable experience is that of becoming a spouse or a parent and that’s because it’s an echo of that far more holy relationship of oneness with God.
We haven’t been quite literally brought back from the dead, but Jesus absolutely raises us to new life with his sacrifice for our sins. Like Lazarus, we are called out of our tombs by our savior. But also like Lazarus, we come out wrapped in the remnants and evidence of the death we’d been trapped in. And unfortunately for us, we come out of the tomb with our memories still intact.
Our grave clothes can look like a lot of different things. Some of us have really hard things in our pasts, things that haunt us, that dog our steps, that make us feel like we weren’t worth saving. We all have sin in our past, and even when we know it’s been forgiven it can be hard to live that as reality. But we must.
We can’t live our lives in our grave clothes. How often do we continue to stumble around in our grave clothes, hobbling despite the miracle of new life that has been given to us? To be fully alive in what Jesus has done for us, the grave clothes have to come off. We can’t say we accept his forgiveness and sacrifice and then go on living as if we haven’t been saved and are still trapped under the weight of our own sin. So we have to embrace the duality of the pain that we have hard things in our past, and the joy that God has lovingly provided a way for us to be restored to him despite that. It takes both. We have to not just believe Jesus when he says our sins our forgiven we have to live that.
This is hard, really hard to do. But we absolutely have to do it. Jesus is not calling frightened followers who are going to walk behind him, heads hung low and defeated. He is calling beloved, dear ones that will walk confidently in his wake.
Being raised to life again is only the beginning. We have to leave the grave clothes behind if we ever want to walk fully in the light of our reawakened day.
Jesus has called you out of the grave, Christian, let’s leave the grave clothes in the tomb where they belong.
Let’s find some joy,
A
Avalon Robinson Author 