“Four Days Late but Always on Time…” John, Chapter 11

I love, love, the stories of Jesus, especially the one about Lazarus. You know the story well. Lazarus had been sick and his sisters sent for Jesus, but Jesus delayed His coming because He “just didn’t want to heal Lazarus… He wanted to raise him from the dead.” Now, “four days late,” Jesus shows up at the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Lazarus has “already been dead four days,” and he smells like a rotten corpse. Lazarus is in his grave, with a huge stone at the door… He calls for the great stone to be rolled away. He is the “giver of Life!” Jesus cries with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” Lazarus, bound head and foot with “grave clothes”, comes hopping out of the grave…

In those days, they wrapped the dead from head to feet, with strips of linen cloth. Many years before, they had not covered the face of the rich, but only of the poor, because there were so many poor who died of starvation, that their faces were black with famine. Later, they decided to cover all the faces, rich and poor, so that they would not “shame the poor.” Lazarus comes forth, bound so tightly with these linen clothes, that it would have been impossible for anyone, (even alive), to move in these “grave clothes.” Jesus says, “Loose him and let him go!” In other words, “take his grave clothes off!” A few days later, “formerly dead and stinking Lazarus” is at his house, sitting at the table, having supper with Mary, Martha, and Jesus!

Some people are in bondage, head to toe, wrapped with Satan’s “grave clothes”, guilt, anxiety, hopelessness, despair, and so on. But Jesus, the “Life-Giver” wants to set you free of your “grave clothes,” from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet! God will do it!

Find a church that believes in the “power of God,” or a friend who believes in prayer, and all it takes is a single “prayer of Faith!” Shake off those “grave clothes” and start praising the Lord! You will never be the same! Sherry