Jump Start # 452 

John 11:43 “When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus come forth.’”

  John 11 is devoted to the resurrection of Lazarus, the friend of Jesus. Lazarus had been sick and then he died. Jesus delayed his coming, on purpose. He didn’t come when he was sick. He didn’t come immediately after he died. He waited. Lazarus was buried and still Jesus waited. He knew. He had plans. When Jesus finally came, Lazarus’ sister, Martha and Mary, both scolded Jesus, saying, had you been here he would not have died. They knew Jesus had healed the sick. Village after village had proof of what Jesus could do. But now, they felt, it’s too, late. He’s not only dead, but he’s been buried for four days. Too late.

  Jesus goes to the tomb of Lazarus, orders the stone removed and cries out, as our verse says, for Lazarus to come out. Lazarus hears and obeys. Jesus proves that He can talk to the dead and that He is the Lord of the living and the dead.

  I sometimes wish that there was a Paul Harvey, ‘The rest of the story,’ page to what happened here. After everyone left, and only Mary, Martha and Lazarus were together in their home, I would love to have heard the conversations. The sisters would be joyful and thankful to have Lazarus back, but what about Lazarus?

  The righteous who die go to paradise. There are comforted there. There is no indication that Jesus ever raised an unrighteous person. For Lazarus it meant, coming back to a world in which he would again get hungry, have to go to work, get tired, face bugs, diseases, disappointments, temptation and eventually die again. God does not tell us what Lazarus saw, felt or knew when he was in Paradise.

  The information given to us, particularly from Luke 16, is that it is wonderful for the righteous. That can’t be said for the wicked. I don’t think we’ll miss this world. The other side, especially Heaven, will be so wonderful, so glorious, so special that we won’t long to be any where else. That’s hard for us. When at work, we long to be home. When at home, we need to be somewhere else. Even at church services, we tend to be in a hurry to get somewhere. Not on the other side. I don’t think we’ll wish that we could come back and go to work just for a couple of days. I don’t think we’ll wish that we could again face temptation, nasty attitudes or mean people. I don’t think we’ll long to be anywhere else.

  I don’t know if Lazarus blamed his sisters or knew exactly why he was brought back, but I sure can imagine him saying to them, “Why? It was awesome over there. Why did you want me back?”

  Today, I’ve got a lot of places to be. My plate is full. Tons of things to get done. Typical day for most of us. Home is just a place to refuel, check in, and off we go again. Busy. Hurried. Always some other place to be. Not on the other side…Heaven is the end of the journey. No other place to be. Nothing calling our attention. No longer hurried. No longer trying to squeeze in one more thing in a tight schedule. No wishing to be elsewhere. Can you imagine?

  Won’t it be wonderful…in all the things we do, let’s not lose sight of our destination…we are heading to Heaven!

Roger