7-30-2014

 Good Morning All,

         John 11:39; “Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”

      This is part of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  It is the final act that Jesus performs that causes the Jewish Council to decide, once and for all, that Jesus must die.  It is significant that Lazarus was dead for four days.  It was a Jewish belief that the spirit hung around the body for three days, after the third day you were completely and officially dead.  The fact that this occurred in a warm climate without embalming techniques explains the odor.  It doesn’t take long for the decaying process to set in and for the stench to become very noticeable.

    The odor that would have come from the tomb would have been pretty powerful.  It would have also reminded Mary and Martha that their brother was really dead and gone.  The people around the tomb would have recoiled and some may have even gagged at the smell.  The smell of death is very overpowering.  It can cause you to be sick at the smell’ sort of like our sin before God.

     The stench of the world to Jesus would have been overpowering in many ways; yet he stayed and ministered to the people.  He did this out of his great love.  His love was so great that it overcame the stench of our sin and make no mistake about it sin stinks.  It stinks even to us.  We see the cruelty of man to his fellow man. We see how cheaply we view life; we see how much we seek our own selfishness over the needs of others.  Our greed and arrogance raises a stink to God. 

    Our sin what separates us from God.  It is the stench that keeps us away.   Our sin also separates us from our neighbors as well.   This is what we must repent of and get rid of in order to have a more pleasant life.  When we fail to repent, we continue to live in the stench of the tomb.  We stay in the arms of death.  Yet Jesus enters our life, our tomb, and calls us out of the arms of death and away from the stench of sin.  He calls us away from the pain of sin and brings us to life and light. 

    We can leave the pain, the sadness, the stench of sin behind.  It does not have to control you.  God gives us the power to walk away from sin; God enables us to leave sin behind.  The stench and the odor can be left in the grave while we walk out in new life.  God’s grace never fails.  It can lift you out of the sadness that sin is.  It can lift you to life.

Gracious God, your mercy roll over us like a river.  Each breath we take is a new experience in your grace.  Guide us by your Spirit that we may remain out of the stench of the grave and live the life that you have called us to.  Direct us with your love.  Be with those who feel they are pulled back to the grave.  Cleanse them of the stench of sin and bring them before your glorious throne of mercy that they may rest in the arms of your love.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret