Take Ye Away the Stone

By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days. Everyone knew he was dead. Martha said it out loud: “Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.” And yet Jesus said, “Take ye away the stone.”

He could have moved it himself. Instead he asked them to do it, on his word, before they saw anything happen. “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”

“Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid.” Jesus prayed, and then cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” And the man who had been dead four days walked out, still wrapped in graveclothes.

Sometimes God asks us to move the stone before we see the miracle. To obey, to pray, to hope, when everything looks dead. The stone is our part. The life is his.