After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out! ” John 11:43
“I love you.” “Will you marry me?” “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” “It’s a girl.” “Daddy, I love you.” “Daddy, I love him.” “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” “I love you, Granddaddy.” “Goodbye, Bobbie.”
These are just words. But in every case, when I heard them—or spoke them—they had a jarring impact. These words changed my life when I first heard them spoken. And they continue to change my life.
Down through recorded history words have been spoken that will never be forgotten. “Never give in. Never, never, never, never.” “Give me liberty or give me death.” “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
But from the beginning of time, there may not have been more important words spoken than the ones Jesus spoke on that afternoon in Bethany at the grave of His friend. A flurry of activity had led the Savior to this place. Mary and Martha had first sent word to Jesus: “Lord, the one you love is sick” (v. 3). Soon this was followed by Jesus’s own diagnosis: “Lazarus has died” (v. 14).
So Jesus went to see Mary and Martha. Filled with grief, Martha met Him as He entered their town. “If you had been here,” Martha pled with Him, “my brother wouldn’t have died” (v. 21). Struck with grief over His friend’s death and the people’s lack of faith, “Jesus wept” (v. 35).
The people led the Master to the cemetery where the man had been entombed. “Remove the stone,” Jesus ordered. “Lord,” Martha protested, “there is already a stench because he has been dead four days” (v. 39).
And then the Messiah spoke the words that will forever be remembered by men and women everywhere: “Lazarus,” Jesus said, “come out!” (v. 43). The sovereign, incarnate God of the universe—the one who, by speaking, had brought everything into existence and now with a human voice—had spoken. Jesus called His friend by name. This was a fortunate thing. If He hadn’t, every grave would have emptied at the sound of His holy voice commanding them to abandon their crypts.
Jesus’s spoken words sent warm blood coursing through Lazarus’s cold veins. Fresh air filled his collapsed lungs. Brain waves ignited inside his darkened head. Jesus had spoken, and Lazarus was alive. Then out he walked.
Once Lazarus was back in the warm sunshine but wrapped from head to toe with strips of cloth, Jesus said one more incredible thing. It was a call to those people standing there, gawking at the living mummy before them: “Unwrap him and let him go” (v. 44).
God’s words give life. His admonition for each of us to tenderly “unwrap” the lives of those who have just been made alive is clear. You do this by listening to your wife’s fears. Admonishing our disobedient children and stepchildren. Or by encouraging your fallen friend to repent and be restored. These are not just words. They’re powerful words—life-giving and life-altering words.
Listen to Jesus’s words. Give them space to change your life.