Wednesday, July 19, 2006
When I get sick, it's a rare event in our family. I feel blessed with a pretty healthy life. Once when I was hit with the flu, though, it's enough to say I was not moving except in the direction of the bathroom. I was too weak to talk or turn over for about 24 hours, and then I finally started to improve. When I began to feel better, I desperately wanted a shower, and that was my first physical triumph after the battle with the flu. And I very happily piled in a corner the symbol of that long, dark day I'd had - those blue, flannel pajamas I'd worn the whole time. They'd been sweated out several times, and they did not smell very nice. They probably should have been burned. Here I was, showered with fresh clean clothes on. I wouldn't have put those rotten, old pajamas back on for anything.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Goodbye, Sick Stuff."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 11:38. Here Jesus faces one of the great challenges of His ministry. His good friend, Lazarus, has died. There are weeping friends and family around the tomb, and the Bible says, "Jesus, deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 'Take away the stone.' He said." They did, although Martha objected, "By this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days." Verse 43 says, "Jesus called in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!', and the dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, cloth around his face, and Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
Can you imagine Lazarus going back later and getting back into his old grave clothes, like me and my flu pajamas? I'm sure he would not return to the stuff that was wrapped around him while he was dead. Maybe that's what you've been doing. See, we are all Lazarus, because we've all been raised from the living death of trying to make it without Christ. According to 2 Corinthians 5:17, we are new creations in Christ. The old is gone, a new life has begun, and there are old grave clothes to leave once and for all.
Could it be that you've drifted back to some of the old you? The habit that you had beaten; what are you doing flirting with it again? That compromising relationship you had finally put behind you; why are you running around the edges of it again? That dark temper you had under Christ's control; is it rearing its head again? Maybe it's that tendency you have to use people, to manipulate people, to hurt people, or to walk over people. Maybe that side of you that insists on taking matters into your own hands instead of trusting God to do it. You were making progress, but it's reappearing again. Maybe it's that old addiction. Maybe it's what you were looking at; what you were watching, and you were starting to get some victory over that. It's coming back again. All of us have these empty, corrupt ways of living. And Christ comes and says, "Let him go!" "Let her go!" "Take off the grave clothes." We could be free of it forever because of Jesus. But if you've drifted back to your grave clothes, would you remember what dead felt like?
Return to the cross where you were freed in the first place, and let Jesus say it again, "Let him go! Let her go!" When you are finally getting well, there is no reason in the world to go back to the sick stuff.