Rolling The Stone Away

Rolling the Stone Away

Martha

Read: John 11:38-40

My stomach felt queasy as I heard the story on the evening news. When neighbors complained about bad odors coming from a ramshackle house, authorities went to check on the elderly woman who lived there. She refused to answer the door or let the policemen in the house. When they finally opened the door, the smell almost knocked them down. Inside they found an unbelievable mess—cats crawling all over the place, furniture soaked with urine and feces, and piles of old garbage everywhere.

Since Lazarus had already been dead for four days, Martha knew that there would be a terrible smell from his decaying body. She recoiled at Jesus’ instruction to roll the stone aside from the cave. Her brother was past the point of being healed. What possible good could come of opening his tomb and subjecting the mourners to the foul odor? When Jesus gently chided her for protesting, Martha relented and gave permission for the stone to be pushed aside. She trusted Jesus even when she didn’t understand him.

We all have smelly things in our lives that we try to keep hidden from other people. Past events may fill us with shame, or we may struggle with an impure thought life, secret temptations, or a habit that we know displeases God. If people ever found out, they would be disgusted with us. So we seal off a part of our lives and try to ignore it.

God wants to renew every area of our lives. There is nothing too messy or repulsive for him to tackle, but he can’t deal with those areas as long as we hold back. He waits for our permission to roll the stone away so that he can go in. Once we open up our secret areas to him, we’ll be amazed at how fresh the air becomes.

“Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them.

John 11:39