Bound In His Grave Clothes

Bound In His Grave Clothes

John 11: 43-44

43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” 

44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

   Lazarus was back from the dead.  There’s no doubt about that fact because Lazarus “came out” of the tomb.  He was free from the bonds of death, but he was still bound by his graveclothes.  The custom of the times was to wrap a dead person’s body in cloths saturated in spices.  They were wrapped from the feet up until the wrappings reached the dead person’s armpits.  Then the arms were put over the chest and the wrappings were then continued to go over the arms.  Lastly a separate cloth similar in size and shape to a large cloth napkin was placed over the face and tied in place. There is a difference of opinion from scholars as to whether or not the spice mix would harden the cloths and cause them to stick to the flesh of the person or not.  Either way the wrapped cloths would bind the legs together and bind the arms across the chest.  The cloth over the face would cover the person’s eyes. 

   So picture Lazarus struggling to rise from the stone shelf he was lying on and shuffling towards the light of the opening.  Her faithfully responded to Jesus’ call for him to “come forth.”  He was free from the bonds of death.  He left the grave.  He was alive and free to live life as he wanted to live it.  But he was hindered by the remnants of his death experience – his graveclothes. 

   In a similar way, many Christians are like Lazarus.  We have heard the voice of Jesus and responded to His call to come to life.  We struggle to obey and begin to move toward the sound of His voice.  We are now sons and daughters of God.  We are alive and we live but we still are bound by a remnant of death; that which Paul calls our old man.  Our spirits are alive but we are wrapped in the decaying life of our old, sinful nature.  We hear Jesus calling to us but we are blinded by the veil that is still over our eyes.

    Paul writes about this “old man” nature four times in the New Testament.  He gives us the instruction that we are to put off this old man and put on a new man that is growing in Jesus.  We don’t actually peel off our flesh and slip on a new body, but we are to peel away the sin that we have in our lives and live the principles we read in the Gospels and the Epistles.  Note I did not say to live BY the principles but to LIVE the principles.  This life needs to become us and we need to become this life.  This is not a lifestyle we adopt and try to live like, but a life we actually begin to live and we grow into.  God is not waiting for us to reflect Jesus like mirrors but to grow into Jesus’ life and become like Him.

   But first we need to heed Paul’s words and act on them by putting off this sinful life that still clings to us like decaying graveclothes.  We are alive inside but wrapped in a sinful life.  What is “putting off” the old life?  I have heard many testimonies about people dealing with this question in different ways.  One example:  our pastor tells of when he got saved.  He loved music and had an extensive music CD collection.  He came to realize his music did not honor God but was endorsing sin.  So he destroyed the collection.  Then God gave him a love for Christian music that replaced the other, sinful music.  He put off a part of his old life and put on a new aspect of his new life.  One piece of his graveclothes fell away.

   Jesus commanded that Lazarus be loosed and set free of his graveclothes.  This is still Jesus’ command today.  If you are a Christian who has grown in your spiritual life then you have the command to help those who may be new to the Christian life and help them to get free from the sinful life that still clings to them.  Teach them, encourage them, pray for them, cry with them, whatever it takes to help them get free from their old sinful desires. 

Stephen Cram                                                               December 8, 2013                     

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ.  Colossians 2:8

Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.

Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is from the New King James Version of the Bible.