Lazarus' resurrection is a miracle I've often overlooked, yet it has recently become a great source of hope for me.

To give you some context, Jesus was told that His good friend Lazarus had fallen ill. Two days upon hearing this, Jesus went to Judea where Lazarus was staying. When Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead in the tomb for four days. 

Mary and Martha, Lazarus' sisters, cried out to Jesus saying, "if only you had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:21, 11:32). We often think that God is only successful when His work is aligned to our timing and plan. Jesus then asked for the stone of the tomb to be taken away; He was even warned against doing so due to Lazarus' bad odour.

Yet not even death, nor Lazarus' 4-days-in-the-tomb stench stopped Jesus from approaching the tomb to work for the glory of God. Similarly, our stench of sin and hopelessness wouldn't prevent Jesus from working in us either. Just as the sick need a physician, Jesus came to heal the spiritually and physically deprived, and in turn, for the church to act as a hospital.

"He then 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" John (11:43).

Notice that He meets us where we are - even if it's death. In turn, He also expects us to come to Him where we are - covered in cloths of shame and guilt, so He can gently unravel us into a new resurrected life in Him.

No one ever expected you to resurrect yourself.

I pray that when He calls out our name, we don't choose to stay in our familiar tomb of spiritual laxity and slumber, but we come out to meet Him - where our graveclothes are taken off and we become robed with His grace and righteousness. May we learn what it means to be fully alive in Him.

The glory of God is man fully alive.

- St. Irenaeus