Met with a friend yesterday, her world kind of rocked by the election results last week. For her, character mattered — like really mattered! And so, it’s taking a bit for her to work through how character seemingly didn’t matter to others, especially those of the household of faith. As coffee conversations tend to go, we rambled down a few streams of consciousness talking about various ways one can find themselves misaligned with others born again of the same Spirit. And at one point, an old saying from a bygone era came to mind:

“To live above, with saints we love; oh, won’t that will be glory?
But to live below, with saints we know; now, that’s a different story!”

Yesterday’s conversation, and that little saying, came to mind as I read a familiar account in John’s gospel this morning.

Jesus is at the tomb of Lazarus. Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha. Lazarus, whom Jesus loved. Lazarus, who is dead. Lazarus, who is about to be un-dead.

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone.

(John 11:39-41a ESV)

Seeing the glory of God . . . that’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. 19:1). Jesus declares the glory of God (2Cor. 4:6, Heb. 1:3). And Lazarus too, would declare the glory of God. That’s what resurrected people do, evidently. Those who were once dead and then are made alive declare the glory of God. Even the saints we know who live below.

They may have not voted as we voted, may not have weighed the relative merits of character and conviction as we did, may not have walked the talk as we think the talk should have been walked, but if you believed you would see the glory of God. For they, like us, were once dead and then made alive.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins . . . But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved.

(Ephesians 2:1, 4-5 ESV)

They are the un-dead — those once buried in sin who, by God’s life-giving call and life-giving Spirit, walked out of the tomb’s bondage. Those raised in newness of life as we were. Fellow believers, brothers and sisters, co-heirs with Christ in Christ. And the glory isn’t just in that they have new life, the glory is manifest in the sweet-smelling aroma of grace which envelopes all of us. For, though we may have shed the grave clothes, after how long we’ve been in the tomb of sin and the rot of the flesh, there is still an odor. Yet, if you believed you would see the glory of God.

Oh, to extend to those who the world would tell us are “on the other side” — whether the “winning” side or the “losing” side — but a measure of the abundant, over-flowing grace we’ve known. More than that, though; to see in “the other side” the glory of God. To see the glory of those who were once enemies of God now seeking to live for God — even if we don’t agree on how that exactly plays out when it comes to being salt and light in a democracy. To see the glory of those who were once strangers to the promises of God now reconciled and brought together as “fellow citizens” of the household of God (Eph. 2:12, 19) — even when their choices, to us, still seem kind of strange. To see the glory of fellow exiles. who once called this world their home, faithfully enduring as they sojourn towards a promised land yet to be fully realized. Simply, to see the glory of God in the saints we know, who live below.

And if we did, now, that’s a different story . . . a stark contrast to our culture’s tribal mentality. A light-shedding, life-giving contrast.

By His grace. For His glory.