John 11:43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”
“Lazarus, come out.” What powerful words!
Jesus directed these words to his friend’s lifeless body. The same voice that spoke light into darkness when the world began, did it again.
Suddenly, Lazarus’ neurons started snapping, blood rushed to a now beating heart, lungs inhaled the sweet breeze of oxygen. Dormant muscles jumped and eyes fluttered as sound waves resumed sending signals to the inner ear. Those signals relayed the message Jesus commanded to a brain no longer asleep. Life came back, center stage, for an encore.
The restoration of Lazarus was, of course, a precursor to Jesus’ resurrection. And when the Lord of Life rose from the tomb, he extended to all his followers the promise of their own encore. The great encore where death, the last enemy of the human soul, will finally be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26).
As I write this, that old enemy seems to be having a field day. Death stalks the streets of Israel, Ukraine and cities across America. Familiar stretchers of slain bodies covered in sheets of stillness fill our screens. But beyond headline news, death slips into hospital rooms and cancer clinics. It spares no one. It affects us deeply. My mother died in my arms 8 years ago, and I still mourn her passing. So we weep.
Thank God this life is not all there is. Scripture warns if we have hope for this life only we should be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:19). The joy we feel when the band comes back for one more song after the concert ends, can’t compare to the Great Encore that awaits every single person in Christ.
One day Jesus will call my name, your name. And we will awake to discover, as C.S. Lewis writes in The Last Battle, that the dream has ended, and true morning has begun. Jesus wanted us to know so we wouldn’t lose heart.
Do you believe that? Are you walking in the assurance that something lies beyond all this death and destruction? If not, take a few moments for the promise of resurrection life to sink in. Let hope rise as you anticipate the Great Encore.