The story of Lazarus is very interesting. It's pretty much about a friend of Jesus who died, then Jesus went to his tomb and resurected him.
This story has been looked at from various angles, but I'd like to draw our attention into something not necessarily noticed.
Here is the text from the Bible:
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
What is interesting though is the order of the events, and how they occur.
First Jesus put His own desires aside in order to honor God. No doubt, Jesus could've just told Lazarus to come out of the grave, but He first glorified God. Not for His benefit, He didn't need that, but for our own. This is the passage in which we have the shortest Bible verse "Jesus wept" (John 11:35) We see Jesus was deeply affected by the death of His friend. Yet He knew what God intended to do and made space for God to be glorified first.
Second, Jesus orders Lazarus to come out. This where, in our lives we have major interventions by God. Situations in which we never thought would be able to get out of, opportunities that could never be dreamt off. This is the step one, God intervenes.
Third, Jesus tells the people to remove from Lazarus his graveyard clothes. The description is very interesting. His hands and his feet were bound. Hands are often associated with the power of action and strength. Feet are often associated with decision making, choices and directions in life.
Let's look at the hands. Even though Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, the "deadman" was still bound. This may be due to traumas we endured, or perhaps some fears that hindfers our capacity of doing things. As long as we are bound by that which buried us, we won't be able to act freely from that past.
The feet are closely related to the hands. But the fact they are bound incapacitates us from even being able to make the decisions. This is when we may be too attached to certain aspects of our sinful life, or the life preceeding Jesus's intervention. Not only attached to some forms of behaviour or thinking, but also to certain "pleasures"
Lastly, they removed the cloth around his face. Perhaps one of the most dangerous. As we are revived, we forget that we have the chance of looking past our loss. By removing the cloth we can see the world's beauty once again, we can hear the voices of those who love us, we can speak and talk and most importantly, we can breathe again.
My name is Michel, I am 19 years-old and in my first year of college. Since I'm 12, I used to have chronic depressions followed by attempts of suicide. It took me time to recover, but for five years I would get better and sink in again. I never quiet understood why. I would be very insecure, choleric, aggressive and melancholic. But I never withdrew from certain habbits that lead me towards that path. I'm still under recovery. Haven't been in a deep depression for 2 years now, but still learning to let go of my graveyard cloth.
