Dancing Bones

So I love where it's recorded in John 11 that Jesus raised ol' Laz from the dead. He says what I think is one of the greatest things in all the Bible....as if any of them aren't good. This one just catches me a lot. Christ was talking to Lazarus' sister and he tells her "This sickness will not end in death."

Kabloom.

How prophetic is this for all the children of God? It's a promise and it's a statement that life in and with Christ is more powerful than death, that death is nothing more than a point along the way - it is not the end. Death is merely a doorway.

And it's so great because when Lazarus dies, he dies with a sickness. But when Jesus raises him, Lazarus is raised as whole as can be, yet without the sickness. It has been stripped from him and done away with. The sickness that was in Laz is no more.

It's baptism through death. The whole point of baptism (which I think is properly done with a good dunking to get the point better..) is to be submerged in water (ie death) and then to re-emerge, having been washed clean and having left all of your sinful self behind in the water. Man, baptism is so beautiful.

And the way that Jesus says "This will not end in death," he says it with such an authority. It's not a "Let's hope this doesn't end in death"...it's a statement of fact.

So whatever you're dealing with, whatever you're going through, whatever plagues you inside and out and you can't seem to separate yourself from that crap called sin in some way or another, know this: This sickness will not end in death. And so the sick and even the dead are called to dance and rejoice.