Of all the things they thought He might say, this wasn’t one of them. Of all the things they thought He might do, this hadn’t entered their mind. That He had come, was a testament of His love for the family . . . that He had come too late to prevent the brother’s death, was somewhat of a disappointment. They believed in Him . . . to a certain degree. They believed He truly loved Lazarus . . . His tears were evidence of that. They really believed that if He had been there, Lazarus would not be dead . . . that this man who had opened the eyes of the blind could also have kept him from dying. But now . . . now it was too late. The grave had won . . . the sting of death had attained the victory . . . the anguish of separation continued to throb from deep within. As such, they were so not expecting Him to say what He said as He stood there by Lazarus’ burial place.

“Take away the stone.” (John 4:39)

As a man of means, Lazarus had been interred in a cave and a large stone had been rolled in front of the entry way in order to seal the tomb (sound familiar? . . . but that’s a story still to come). Four days earlier, he had died and they had prepared his body for burial with anointing oils and spices, wrapped him in burial cloths, and the placed him inside the cave. And for four days his body had been decaying . . . ashes to ashes dust to dust . . . “all are from the dust, and all return to dust” (Eccl. 3:20). And now, as she heard Jesus’ words, the sister of the dead man couldn’t believe her ears . . . did she hear right? . . . was the Master so overcome with grief that He wasn’t thinking clearly? . . . she said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

She didn’t know exactly what He was going to do, but she wasn’t’ sure she wanted to find out. The request didn’t make a lot of sense to her. It wasn’t intuitive as to the purpose for opening up this pit of stinking corruption. She couldn’t imagine what He would do next. Perfect! He had her . . . and the others . . . exactly where He wanted them. Situation: impossible. Next steps: inconceivable. Only option: believe.

“Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ ” (John 4:40)

Though you don’t understand, take away the stone and you’ll see the glory of God. Though the future is unclear, take away the stone and see the glory of God. How this is playing out may not make much sense right now, but believe . . . step out in faith . . . take away the stone . . . that’s the only next step you know I’ve asked you to do . . . take away the stone and behold the glory of God.

And sometimes that’s just what I need to do . . . that one and only one thing that I know is next. Yeah, I might want to see the whole game plan . . . sure, if it was up to me, I’d want to understand how this little thing . . . or that “out of my comfort zone” thing . . . how doing this, which doesn’t make sense, is going to change anything in the future. Or, how doing this, which seems to be counter the “reality” of the situation, can make any difference.

Not logical . . . but I like logical . . . “Believe,” He says. Don’t see how it makes a difference . . . I want to know what the plan is . . . “You don’t, I do, trust Me,” says the Spirit. But I want to know how it’s all going to come together . . . I want to know more than just the next step . . . “I know . . . but you don’t . . . I’ve ordered your paths . . . will you rest in Me and just take away the stone?” says the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

So whaddya’ do? You believe. You obey. And you take away the stone. And then . . . you behold the glory of God . . .

” ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ And he who 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.’ ” (John 11:44)

And then, you move onto the next step . . . Get him out of those rags! . . . and you encounter again the glory of God . . . all because you believed and took away the stone. Amen?