June 15, 2019
John 11 is such a great chapter showing the love Jesus has for all of us. He wept at Lazarus’s grave, He was deeply moved by the mourning of Mary and Martha, and He loved them all enough to tarry before He went to Lazarus. He knew that if He showed us while Lazarus was alive that the people around Him already have the faith for that. By showing up once Lazarus had been dead, He would deepen their faith and reveal His glory in a greater measure.
The thing that I think reveals so much of His love in this chapter is in verse 44. “The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.'” – John 11:44 (NIV)
That is what I can imagine Jesus said to the devil about us. In this world of sin, we are all like the dead man. Our hands and feet are wrapped with strips of our self-righteousness and sin. Our faith is covered with a cloth, darkening our eyes and not allowing us to see clearly. We don’t have the power to remove the cloth on our own so our eyes just adjust to the darkness. But when Jesus died and defeated death with His resurrection He told us to take off our grave clothes and commanded the devil to let us go. The power of sin and darkness was defeated off of our lives. Now the choice is ours to obey and remove our grave clothes because they have no power to keep us bound.
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