Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:04] Hi, everybody, this is Chuck Allen, and welcome to the weekday podcast. You know, oftentimes we read stories in the Bible and just wonder, okay, did that actually happen?
[00:00:15] And, you know, I. I believe the story from John chapter 11 is absolutely spot on. And I, I can just see it happening. As Jesus walked through first century Palestine.
[00:00:26] Lazarus, finished, done, gone. He's been dead for four days now.
[00:00:32] In the tradition of that day, four day meant a Jewish culture. It's over.
[00:00:38] The souls left.
[00:00:39] Decomposition has begun. There's no coming back from four days, right?
[00:00:43] If there was ever an underdog story, this is it. Because you can't get more under than dead. Here's. Here's what I love about the story. It starts with friendship, real friendship. The new living puts it this way. Jesus loved Martha, her sister Mary, and Lazarus, he loved them present tense, active, ongoing. So when Lazarus gets sick, the sisters send word to Jesus, lord, your dear friend is very sick.
[00:01:11] Your dear friend. Not the guy you healed that one time. Not someone who believes in you. Your dear friend.
[00:01:19] And Jesus doesn't come.
[00:01:21] He stays where he is for two more days. Two more days while his friend dies. While his dear friend dies. Can you imagine being Mary and Martha, watching your brother slip away hour by hour, wondering, where is Jesus? We sent word. He knows. He has to know.
[00:01:43] And then their brother Lazarus dies and they bury him.
[00:01:48] And the mourners come and life stops. Four days later, Jesus shows up. And Martha, I love her. Martha comes running out to meet him. And she says, lord, if you had only been here, my brother wouldn't have died. If only.
[00:02:04] Two words that carry the weight of every sleepless night, every unanswered prayer, every why didn't you show up when I needed you most?
[00:02:14] Phrase.
[00:02:15] But then she says something wildly extraordinary. But even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask. Even now, now think about it. It started with if only and moved to even now. The very presence of Jesus does that in our life. Even after four days, even after the burial, even after everyone's gone home, even after all the casseroles have been eaten, life has supposedly moved on. Even now, she believes. And Jesus says to her, your brother, he's going to rise again. And Martha, bless her heart, gives the most religious answer. Yes, he will rise when everyone else rises in the last days. She's thinking eschatology, future tense, someday, eventually, in the sweet by and by. But Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live even after dying. I am in present present tense right here. Right now, I am.
[00:03:15] And then Jesus goes to the tomb, and the text says something beautiful, that Jesus wept.
[00:03:22] Shortest verse in the Bible, but maybe the most profound. Because he tells us that even though Jesus knows what he's about to do, he still feels the weight of death. He still grieves. He still enters into the pain of his friends.
[00:03:36] Jesus doesn't stand at a dist and fix stuff. He comes up close, he weeps. He feels it.
[00:03:44] So they roll away the stone. And Jesus calls out, and the new living says it wonderfully. He calls out in a loud voice, lazarus, come out.
[00:03:53] Come out. Not rise, not be healed, but come out. Like Lazarus is just in there waiting. Like death has never had the final word. And Lazarus comes out, wrapped in grave clothes but alive, breathing, blinking in the sunlight. And here's what gives you chills. Jesus has to say to the people, unwrap him. Let him go.
[00:04:15] Because Lazarus is alive, but he's still bound by the things that were meant for his death. He needs help getting free from what was never supposed to define him.
[00:04:25] See, here's what the story is really about. It's not just about one dude coming back from the dead. It's about Jesus showing us that in him, you're never gone. It's never over.
[00:04:36] That relationship that ended, that dream that died, that part of you, that thought was buried forever, that hope you gave up on Jesus is standing at the mouth of every tomb in our lives, calling out, come out.
[00:04:51] He takes things that are dead and gone and finished and he calls them back to life. Like me and you.
[00:04:57] Maybe you're listening today and you feel like you're wrapped up in grave clothes, like you're alive but still bound by the things that were meant for death, shame or fear or regret or disappointment.
[00:05:10] Jesus is saying to us today, and maybe directly to you, get unwrapped.
[00:05:17] Let them go. Come out.
[00:05:20] Because in Christ, you are never gone. Your best days are not behind you. Your story isn't over. That thing you thought was dead and buried, Jesus is calling it back to life. Come out, he says. Come out and live.
[00:05:35] Thanks for listening in to the weekday podcast. I'm Chuck Allen. Will you see you back real soon. Bye now.
