John 11:32-44 (NRSV)
Read John 11:32-44 on biblegateway.com
Verse 32When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
Verse 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. Verse 34He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Verse 35Jesus began to weep. Verse 36So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" Verse 37But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" Verse 38Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Verse 39Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days." Verse 40Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" Verse 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. Verse 42I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." Verse 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" Verse 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."
Devotion
After Lazarus died, Mary said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” She already seems to know that Jesus cannot be stopped even by death. Soon, others know it too.
Jesus stood at the grave of Lazarus, dead four days and shrouded in stench. That's just the kind of place our Lord loves to work. Jesus called the dead man from his grave, and Lazarus walked out, wrapped in the cloth of death, but now very much alive.
This is but a foretaste of the future that awaits Jesus himself—Jesus, who could not be contained by his own grave. Jesus, whose return to life was new and complete and everlasting. Jesus, whose victory over sin, death, and the powers of evil was all for us.
One day, we will hear the voice Lazarus heard, as our Lord calls us from death to life. And it will not be the old life of this broken world, but new and triumphant life in the fullness of God’s eternal kingdom.
Prayer
Victorious Savior, you conquered even death by your resurrection to life. Strengthen us with the knowledge of your power, and comfort us with the promise that, because you live, we too shall live. Amen.