John 11:43-44 -- On Power and Promise

"And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go."
John 11:43-44


This is amazing by itself, of course, but it seems more amazing when you know what led up to it. Jesus heard about Lazarus being sick, and mentioned that it was good that he wasn't there, because it would help people believe. Then he starts traveling there, mentioning to his disciples that he knows Lazarus is dead already. When they get there, both Mary and Martha tell him that they know Lazarus would still be alive if he had been there, and when he is weeping people around him mention that he healed others and surely would have been able to heal Lazarus. They have some faith, but all of them, no matter what amazing things he had done before, and their knowledge in some cases that he was the Christ, missed the fact that he could do much more than heal. This miracle opened their minds to the fact that, like his Father, Christ had power over life and death. Maybe not enough for them to realize that he could rise again even from his own death, but enough that they realized that even the best of them were still underestimating who he was.

I think we do this as well sometimes. We underestimate Jesus as a God, thinking that he is less than he is, even when we understand him a little bit. Today, perhaps, we should take a harder look at Christ's life and teachings and realize that he was never just a man, although he became mortal and suffered for us. He was, and is, higher than the angels, and his word and will are the making and breaking of everything we are and know. He invites us to come to him, and will welcome us into his father's house if we continue on his path. We can hope to be like him some time in the eternities, but let's remember that right now, he is everything that we are not, and there is an impossible gulf between us and everything we can be that only he can bridge. He is our Savior and our King in the full sense of both of those words. Like Lazarus, let's rise up from our immobility and serve him, and like the rest of the crowd there that day, remember that God has power over all things, not just fixing our mortal frames.