“Come Forth!”…or something…

“Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. 10 But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.”

~ John 12:9-11

 

Putting aside for a second the “airhead moment” of plotting to kill a person Jesus had just raised from the dead, imagine for a minute just how ridiculous of an impact Lazarus had on the world around him. He didn’t even have to speak most of the time; people came just to see him — he who was dead for four days, he whose sister told Jesus “by now, he stinketh” in the grave — and see the obvious and apparent work that Jesus had worked in his life.

 

It’s not too much a stretch to say there aren’t very many people today who can walk around with as obvious a work as Lazarus had done by Jesus in his, yet in another way, there should be — indeed, there are many. No, perhaps not as clear-cut as “dude was dead in a tomb for four days, then at the word of Jesus, he was resurrected”, his living itself the testimony that death was no match for Jesus, but….

 

…maybe just as clear cut to those who know the one resurrected, delivered, course-corrected from “over the waterfall” to “beside still waters”.

 

Because whether a person be dead and buried or a alive wishing he was…whether a person be on top of the world or at the bottom of the ladder…whether a person be wondering about Jesus from afar like Andrew or like Judas…

 

…When Jesus calls to a person’s soul, saying “Come forth!” as He did to Lazarus, there only remain two options: remain as you are, or follow Him.

 

Today, this day of the Last Supper, do you want to have a testimony to the world as Lazarus did — “I was dead, yet I live”? Sometimes it takes a hot minute for us to get the headwrap removed from our resurrected eyes just as Lazarus did, but once that wrap’s off, GO FORTH and walk the testimony that the Lord has worked in and through you!