"The Next Step"

In John 11:1-44 we find the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. There is so much that happens in these forty-four verses that we could talk about. How about Lazarus getting sick and Jesus waiting two days before He heads his direction? His conversations with His disciples, Martha, and Mary or even the actual raising of Lazarus from the dead itself, a pretty amazing event when you consider that we are told by Martha  in verse 39 that he had been dead for four days already!  Any and all of these events in this encounter would make for excellent points for us to learn from, but we are going to skip right to the end of this account in order to see what He has for us today.

... "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 11:44  Can you imagine what it must have been like. The anticipation of the people as they watched the opening from where the stone had been rolled away. The exclamations as Lazarus appears and stumbles out, face and body still wrapped in his graveclothes.  It had to be an incredible event to witness!  Although, someone, we don't know who, did more then just witness it. They took part!

Jesus said to THEM, "Loose him, and let him go." Can you imagine? Someone stepped forward and started to unwrap him. Would you and I have?  Don't forget, this was basically a mummy type event.  He was coming out of a tomb, still wrapped in graveclothes, after being dead for four days. Martha exclaimed to Jesus, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days." when He had told them to roll the stone away in verse 39. Can you imagine being the one to have to actually touch the graveclothes and to unwrap him!

The point here is, it wasn't enough to just raise Lazarus up. It required the next step, to unwrap him and to loose him from the graveclothes! I don't know who the 'them' were in this account, but in my eyes, 'them' are to be commended! They obeyed and dealt with the stench of the graveclothes. Which leaves us with this thought, would we have been a part of them, or even better, will we?  When we see people, 'called forth out of darkness into His marvelous light' do we notice that they might need us to stick around long enough to help with a few graveclothes?