One of the downsides of my job as pastor is that I’m around death and people dying. It’s hard to see people go through sickness unto death and it’s hard to see the people who love them suffer so much from their loss.
In this story we see a miracle taking place as Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. This was a great miracle - but it needed a finishing touch.
The man was raised but was not yet completely free. He was still wrapped in his grave clothes.
Jesus turns to his disciples and says, “Unwrap him and let him go.”
It’s the same message that Jesus is turning to you and I for our participation. People come to church who have been set free from sin and death and now Jesus looks at us and says, “Take their grave clothes off.”
There are many Christians who are still wearing their grave clothes. They have been made alive by the grace of Jesus Christ but they continue to wear their grave clothes.
Such was the case with the church at Corinth.
They were saints (I Cor. 1:2). But they were still wearing their old sinful grave clothes.
1. (1:10-13) - divisions
2. (3:1-4) - carnal
3. (5:1-2) - fornication and indifference to fornication
4. (11:17-22, 30) - heresies and abuse of the Lord’s Supper.
Lazarus was moving around but he was still bound hand and foot. He probably shuffled like a man in a sack. He was a Christian Zombie.
As a pastor, this is exactly how many people come to church - they’ve had an experience with God but they are not yet totally free.
They come to church but are still in the grave clothes of rebellion, sin, bad habits and addictions, etc.
But isn’t that like all of us? There are times when we need assistance and there are times when we’re called upon to give assistance.
It’s kind of like a butterfly’s cocoon. As an unbeliever, sin was your life. You wrapped yourself in sin and sought for fleeting peace and safety there.
But when Christ transformed you into His own righteousness you were expected to work out your salvation. This would mean struggling past the sins that had been such a large part of your past life.
The struggle is hard but it also strengthens you so that, once free, you may mount up with wings as eagles.
The grave clothes were left on so that the disciples might enter into rare fellowship with Christ.
They could say, "Our Lord raised Lazarus, and I was there and helped to unloose him from his grave-clothes."
There is a very special sweetness in the knowledge that we may have done something to cheer, or to teach, or to help sanctify a soul. This gives you a vested interest in that person.
There are 2 reasons why brothers and sisters in Christ ought to be quick and ready to help each other in the removal of grave-clothes.
1. The Lord commands it. He encourages us to comfort the feeble and support the weak. If He commands something - there need not be any other reason.
2. But there is this also, every child of God has, at some time, felt the pressure and imprisonment of the grave-clothes of our past life. We should be the first to sympathize and the first to run to the aid of those who need it.
Selfishness and pride are arrogant sins and God hates them. We must be willing to follow the example of Jesus and sacrifice for the benefit of others and so that the name of Christ will always be glorified.
Bring on the Zombies!
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