Lazarus, come forth!

Let us discuss the story of Lazurus whom our Lord raised from the dead and how it affects us.

We read -  Then they took away the stone  from the place  where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up  His  eyes and said,  “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.  And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice,  “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them,  “Loose him, and let him go.” (John 11:41-44 NKJV)

Were we not all dead in our sin before Jesus Christ called us forth from the darkness into the light? Lazarus was dead in a tomb, representing our state before heeding to the calling of Christ. As Lazarus was physically dead we too were spiritually dead and it was Christ who searched for us and called us from the darkness. We read - “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?  And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. (Matthew 18:12, 13 NKJV) As Lazarus was called by Christ he heeded to His voice and came forth from darkness, so too, it is up to us to heed His voice and come forth from darkness and death into new life.

And what of Christ's words "Loose him, and let him go" is this not what Christ commands satan once we step into the shining light of Christ? "Loose him\her" He commands the enemy and begrudgingly the adversary lets us go. As Lazarus was given new life, we too, are given new life and it is then up to us to thank, follow and worship the Lord for His marvellous dispensation toward us. Lest we fall into a trap and remember not the glorious calling in which we were called and fall back into error, we read - New American Standard Bible (©1995) John 5:14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you." So it is imperative that we strive to keep the faith that has been given to us, by which we were called by the Lord to come forth from the darkness. 

Father and Son, Love is sacrificial

As a new dad of about a week, I can only now begin to understand the sacrifice that our Lord God the Father made by sending His only begotten Son to die on our behalf.

We read in John 3:16

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

When my son is crying because he is hungry, I actually feel his pain and begin to feel hurt when I see him looking for food, I can only imagine the pain I would feel if, God forbid, he came down with a cold. How then did God our Father feel whilst watching His beloved Son take a punishment fit for us sinners? I can only imagine the hurt our Father felt watching Jesus hang upon the Cross, but this should make us even more thankful for the sacrifice that our Lord God took upon Himself to defeat sin, death and satan.

Love is sacrificial, true love that flows from the goodness of God is not selfish but rather it "does not seek its own" as the blessed St Paul states. As parents all over the world make sacrifices for their children because of love, we as Christians should seek this love from God to convey it to the rest of humanity. The hurt we feel for for our children we should feel for strangers who have fallen on hard times or are being persecuted, mistreated or abused. Although God loves His Son Jesus Christ, He loves the world so much that He died for us while we were still sinners, we read in Romans 5 -

 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will hardly die for a wicked man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. ¹¹ And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Jesus Christ suffered on our behalf even though we are completely undeserving due to our sinful nature, but He offers us repentance and forgiveness by His Holy and life giving Cross, where he paid the price of shedding every last drop of blood in order to reverse the transgressions of Adam.

This is the epitome of sacrificial love and we should pray, fast and give alms so that the Lord God will see our hearts and begin to dwell within us, and His love will burn the thorns and thistles that attempt to choke our faith. By sacrificing time, money, effort and energy to assist those who do not deserve our love, those who we do not know and possibly despise us, we are following in the footsteps of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Amen