When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
- John 11:43-44 ESV
There’s something about sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee, an open Bible, and a dog who thinks every sound in the neighborhood is his personal responsibility.
I know this because I’m that dog.
My human was reading about Lazarus this morning. I was doing what I do best—sitting nearby, keeping one eye on him and one eye on anything that might possibly be a squirrel.
Then I heard him read those words:
“Lazarus, come out.”
Now, I’ve been called a few things in my day. Come here. Get out of there. Drop it. Leave the cat alone.
But nobody has ever called me out of a grave.
Lazarus had been dead four days. Four days! By then, everybody figured the situation was beyond fixing.
But Jesus didn’t.
Jesus walked up to a grave that everybody else had already written off and spoke life into a place where death had already settled in.
And Lazarus came out.
That got me thinking.
Sometimes Believers get buried long before they stop breathing.
Buried under fear.
Buried under regret.
Buried under disappointment.
Buried under the mistakes we’ve made or the wounds somebody else left behind.
Sometimes we get so comfortable in the darkness that we forget there is a voice outside the grave calling our name.
But Jesus still calls.
“Come out.”
Come out of the shame.
Come out of the fear.
Come out of the bitterness.
Come out of the belief that your past has the final word.
And here’s something else I noticed in this story.
Lazarus didn’t raise himself.
Jesus did the calling.
Jesus did the raising.
Lazarus simply responded.
That’s grace.
We don’t save ourselves.
We don’t manufacture resurrection power.
We don’t crawl out of the grave by trying harder.
Jesus calls us to life.
But when He calls, we’ve got to get up.
There comes a point when faith means taking that first step out of the tomb.
Maybe your grave isn’t a literal one. Mine sure isn’t. I’d have trouble getting my tennis ball in there.
But we all know what it means to feel stuck in a place Jesus never intended us to stay.
So today, listen closely.
If Jesus is calling you out, don’t argue with the grave.
Don’t explain why you can’t.
Don’t keep rehearsing why it’s impossible.
Arise.
Take the next step.
Walk toward the light.
Because the same Jesus who stood outside Lazarus’ tomb still speaks life into dead places.
And when Jesus says, “Come out,” the best response isn’t complicated.
You come out.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your voice when I’m hiding in places of fear, failure, and discouragement. Give me the faith to step out of the tomb and into the life You have called me to live. Amen.
Keep the Faith… Carpe Diem
