Come Out!

John 11:38–44

Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Martha even warned Jesus about opening it because by now there would be an odor. In everyone else’s eyes, this situation wasn’t difficult anymore—it was finished. Lazarus wasn’t sick. He wasn’t struggling. He was dead.

Then Jesus stood outside the tomb and said, “Lazarus, come out!” And the man who had been dead walked out. John tells us his hands and feet were still wrapped in burial cloths and his face was covered. Jesus then told the people around him, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

I love that picture because Jesus didn’t simply make Lazarus alive—He called him out of the place where death had put him. Sometimes Jesus brings new life into us, but we’re still carrying around some old grave clothes. Shame. Bitterness. Fear. Addiction. Regret. An old identity. Things that belonged to who we were before Jesus called us out.

Maybe there’s something you’ve decided is too far gone. A relationship. A dream. A person you’ve been praying for. Maybe even a part of yourself. John 11 reminds us not to confuse our inability with Jesus’ inability. What looked completely finished to everyone standing outside that tomb was one command away from becoming a testimony.

Jesus is still in the business of bringing life into dead places. And when He calls us out, we don’t have to keep wearing what belonged in the tomb. Come out. Take off the grave clothes. And walk in the life Jesus has given you.

Today’s thought: What “grave clothes” am I still carrying that Jesus is asking me to leave behind?

Circle up!

Shannon Formby, Founder of My Faith Journey

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