Shedding The Old

Shedding the Old

Read: John 11:38-44

“Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

John 11:44

“We should always regard communion with other believers as an eminent means of grace.”

—J. C. Ryle

IN WORD Is this an afterthought reported by John or a statement laden with meaning? Perhaps we should not make too much of the fact that Jesus is specific in His instructions after Lazarus exits the tomb. But in the framework of inspired Scripture, words are included for a purpose.

Bound by strips of linen around his hands and feet, with a cloth over his face, Lazarus hears this explicit command first after he is called out of the grave: “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” The stunned onlookers surely needed some instruction, and Lazarus, disoriented and still confined, surely needed assistance. At first he sees nothing. He has only heard the voice of Jesus. The visual illustration is good theology. When Jesus raises us out of our sinful state of death, there is something left to do before we run free. The grave clothes must go.

IN DEED What grave clothes have had us bound? Habitual sins? Guilt? The philosophies of this age? We must be free of them, and we are helpless to shed them on our own. Jesus tells our loved ones to help. He raises us to new life, but we in the church must be in the business of “taking off grave clothes and letting people go.” In bearing one another’s burdens, in being priests unto each other, in our fellowship with one another, we, the walking resurrected, are assisting one another in removing the remnants of death.

Consider two questions: (1) How do you need the assistance of others in shedding your burial garments? (2) How can you help others shed theirs? This—freedom from the trappings and legacy of death—is the work of the fellowship of believers.