Of all the things we believe to be true about the God we cannot see, the notion of being resurrected from the dead is the one thing that calls for complete faith.
Most people will grant that Jesus was right about how we should live our lives. But those unexplainable moments — a healing that mystifies medicine, a turn of events that seems to have no earthly explanation, a sunrise too beautiful for human understanding — remind us that, with God, all things are possible.
Taste and see how God’s acts of grace can strengthen our faith when we are in need of resurrection.
So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I 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!” The 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.”
John 11:41-44
The story gives us no description of the crowd except for their part in moving the stone to open the tomb. All eyes are on Jesus. And Jesus’ eyes are on the God of resurrection. He thanks God in advance for hearing his prayer, and then with confidence booming in his voice, he calls out to Lazarus. We don’t know what Lazarus says or what the crowd says, but we can see him in our minds, his face covered in cloth, walking toward the sound of Jesus’ voice.
So it must sometimes be with us. Unlike the crowd of mourners, we have never been witness to such a miracle. But the miracle of God’s voice can guide us to and through an uncertain future, can make us believe in a presence beyond our ability to imagine.
Estelene Boratenski
Spirit whose power is greater than death, help me to hear your voice when I cannot see and to have faith when I am in need of resurrection. Amen.
Go now and offer comfort and grace to a world in need of resurrection, certain in the knowledge that the God who causes resurrection is with you.