SpringCleaning! What Is That Smell? March 2

SpringCleaning!
March 2, 2021

What Is That Smell?

John 11:14, ‘So then He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But now let us go to him.”’ (NIV)

I wonder if you ever had a mouse die in a wall of your home or in the attic perhaps? Wasn’t the eventual stench stomach-assaulting? I recall one Colorado Easter when I was a little girl. We had to hide Easter eggs inside the house because of the outside blizzard. We couldn’t find one of the eggs at the end of the hunt. Well, not on that day anyway. But we did find it eventually; or, our noses did! There are not too many things as putrid as a rotten egg or a decaying animal or rotting potatoes, right?

It must have smelled that way on Day 4! Even the sister of Lazarus indignantly says to Jesus, “But, Lord! He has been four days dead so he is also four days stinky.” Perhaps her exasperation is in part because she thought Jesus hadn’t made the effort to arrive in time to save her brother from dying, but also scientifically because of decomposition of a dead body. But God!

Jesus comes at the request of His dear friends, people He cares deeply for; however, purposefully, He delays. Death by delay. Has anything in your life ever ‘died’ due to God’s delay to heal the detail you laid sickly at His feet? How you must have admonished Him, like Martha; bemoaned, like Mary; questioned, like mankind! So the dream died, the one you took to Him wrapped in request, bathed in begging, steeped in prayer. You sent word and He assured you…He was on His way. But…where is Jesus?! And what you entrusted to Him ended up being laid to rest. And you weren’t ready. For the delay, the denial, the death. It upended in sorrow. We should also remember, God grieved. Jesus loved this Lazarus and He wept at His loss.

He entered the tomb of a dead man. There was a price on Him, a standard expected of Him. He was surrounded by emotionally famished family, doubtful disciples, and pressing people. And what followed the Son of God out of that place of death was life.

Sometimes we need to let something pass away so Jesus can make a miracle, so He can bring belief to life again. And sometimes that must happen in Jesus’ timing not ours. If Jesus had come straightaway when His friends summoned Him and had healed the sick man, they would have never needed to trust Him for what they could not see with their eyes or imagine with their minds. Rather, Mary and Martha needed to conceive with their hearts.

Beloved, it is time to clean house. A lot has happened in your life I imagine since you cleaned house last Spring! The first place we all need to begin is the disposal of decaying and dead dreams. What you hoped to be but hasn’t made it. Perhaps that piece of you inside that feels like it has died truly needed to so that the unbelief in you could be resurrected to life again. I promise you, if Jesus can raise from the grave a dead man, He can certainly resurrect what is dying in you. If a hope of yours has crawled to a cranny to die, you have a Redeemer who calls dead things out of corners to walk again. Maybe you are facing the unexpected loss of a loved one who left too soon, perhaps someone you hoped would leave snuck into a crawlspace and refuses to go. Maybe a mistake laid eggs and multiplied or a dream died or you wrapped a hope in grave clothes and laid it to rest. What retreated into hiding in your life can be raised to life again and the stench of death can be excised and cleansed. If Lazarus, friend of Jesus, can leave that grave behind, so can you, Daughter of the Most High God.

Come with me in March and let’s clean house!
If you are anything like me, you have kept some things around far too long
and now they got to go! And with the Lord’s help, they can!