Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Tuesday Devotion - April 8

Today's offering is from Pastor Wade Roof – Mt. Tabor Lutheran Church, West Columbia, SC
 
John 11:38–44 “The Raising of Lazarus”
 
“Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days." 40Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’"
 
While changing my son’s dipper, it always amazes me how he fights and struggles against me; squirming, flipping back and forth the whole time until, finally, I get a clean dipper on him. I know he must be uncomfortable, I know he must want to be changed, and I know he must smell what everybody else in the room is smelling, but he is going to fight it until the bitter end. Why? Why fight the one trying to help you? Why struggle against what we both know is good for you? Why sit in your stink, rather than be made clean and new?
In thinking about Lazarus lying in that tomb, I believe he has a choice to make. As Christ calls him out, Lazarus has to choose his future. He could just lay there. He could simply stay in the darkness of that cave, bound up in his death clothes, and rot away in his stench. This might not be the most comfortable, it might not be the best situation, but it’s tolerable and it’s predictable.
 
Or… Lazarus could come out. Who knows what awaits him outside that tomb. It could be a harsh reality, a return to a life that could bring more pain and suffering than he might want, or it just might be the healing and wholeness that he needs: the resurrection and life that he has longed for. So he must choose to lay there and die, or get up and live.
 
Today you have been called by name to choose life or death. You have been called to get up out of your stink and live again. The stone has been rolled away, God’s breath of life has filled your lungs once more, and light and life await you outside that tomb. Why fight the One trying to help you? Why struggle against what we both know is good for you? Why sit in your stink, rather than be made clean and new? The decision to get up is yours.
You know your reality, and you are well aware of what binds you up in this world. Christ is ready to set you free this day. Choose life and come out of this tomb. Choose life and live – knowing that Jesus will walk with you to the cross and beyond. Choose life and breathe freely the Holy Spirit that will sustain you until we meet God face to face. Amen.

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