On John 11:1-45

By Pat Pagulayan

“Jesus cried in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!’ The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face.”

We are Lazarus. Like Lazarus, we are dead; stuck in the graves of our current lives. It may be the difficult trials, challenging situations, or huge burdens that we are facing right now. Oftentimes, being in our grave is not about having a huge problem in front of us, but can be the feeling of being stuck in loneliness, pain, anger, addiction, betrayal, doubt, envy, shame. Sometimes it can even be the mere lack of direction in life, not knowing where to go or what God wants for us. Like Lazarus, we are isolated in our own graves, where it seems like there is nowhere to go, nowhere to run.

What did Lazarus have to do to come out of his grave?

Nothing. He was a dead man. In fact, he has been dead for four days already.

So how then was a dead man like Lazarus raised?

Simple. He heard Jesus, and by hearing Jesus, he gained new life.

Like Lazarus, that is all we need to do to get out of our own graves: to hear Him. Like how Jesus cried out in a loud voice to call Lazarus, Jesus has also been calling out to us,

“[insert your name], here I am! Come out!”

What are the graves in our current lives that we need to come out of in order to gain new life? Are we hearing Jesus call out to us? More importantly, are we taking the time to listen to Him?

And like Lazarus who waited for four days for Jesus to unbound him into new life, are we patiently waiting on our Lord to unbound us and raise us from our graves?