Bible story: The living deadman

The house had never had so many visitors. The front door never stopped opening and closing to let in a constant stream of people who had heard the amazing news.  The incredible news.  The impossible news – that Lazarus was alive! Alive! A walking, talking, breathing, laughing man, who had been … dead! Now that was news!

Lazarus had never been so popular.  A local celebrity, ever since that amazing day, when Jesus came to Bethany.  Lazarus could still hear the voice that drew him back from what seemed now like a dream.  He needed no encouragement at all to tell his story to any one who wanted to listen.  And he always ended his story in the same way.  His eyes would open wide, his face became full of life and joy, and he would say with a great big smile, 'Don't you realise? Death is not the end!'

'The voice that brought me back,' he used to say, 'was like a flash of lightning that made my whole body jump.  It had a special power, so great it seemed to lift me up from that very uncomfortable bed I had been laid on.  I just had to do what it said. "Come out!" it demanded.  "Lazarus, come out!"

'Now I expect you know what it feels like when you wake up in the middle of the night in a strange bed because you're on holiday.  For a few moments you get all confused and worried.  Your mind races to try and work out what's happening. Where's the door gone?  What's that light?  What's happened to my favourite toys?  That sort of thing.  You're all disorientated, just for a while, but then it slowly dawns on you as to where you are.  Well, it was sort of like that – Lazarus told his visitors – except that in my case I couldn't see a thing.  There was something wound round my face.  It was cold as well, and I didn't know which way was up.  All I could hear was that powerful voice.

'As I adjusted to everything I managed to pull the bandages a bit so that I could see where I was.  It was a cave.  And not just a cave but a grave.  I had been in a grave!  They had all thought I was dead and well, actually, I was.  But Jesus had brought me back to life.

'Well, I've never seen people more shocked in my life.  They looked like they'd seen a ghost, which I suppose they had.  But I was a living ghost, a living dead man.  All because of Jesus.  He is God on earth.  God come to rescue us from all that is bad.  To rescue us, even from death.  Don't you realise?  Death is not the end.'

Well, Lazarus went on telling his visitors this, all day long. As each new person came he'd start all over again but every time he would end with the same words: 'Don't you realise? Death is not the end!'

Many of Lazarus' visitors became followers of Jesus, because of what he told them.  They wanted Jesus to rescue them not from a grave but from all the bad things they'd done wrong that deserved death.  And he did.  They wanted to feel clean on the inside.  And they did.  They wanted to become friends with God's promised rescuer.  And they did.

Have you ever wondered why there were such large crowds to greet Jesus on that day when he came into Jerusalem on a donkey?  Well, it was because of what happened to Lazarus.  All the visitors who had heard his story were there and they were crying out 'Rescue us now, Jesus. Rescue us now.'  Or in their words: Hosanna. Hosanna .

Very soon Jesus was going to rescue not just Lazarus, not just his visitors, but also everyone in the whole world.  But it turned out to be in a very different way than they might have expected.  God is always taking us by surprise.  And you couldn't get more surprised than Lazarus and friends that day!  Listen, you can still hear him telling his story.  'Death is not the end,' he is saying. 'Death is not the end!'

God showed his love for us by sending his only Son Jesus, so that we could become really alive through him. 1 John 4.9