by this time he stinketh:

john 11:39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
Joh 11:40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
Joh 11:41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
Joh 11:42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
Joh 11:43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
Joh 11:44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.


we all know this story front and back, but tonight when talking about this with a friend i saw something i have never seen or heard anyone else say about this text before.

let me just say ahead of time that this maybe a stretch, and maybe totally wrong. but i thought it was cool.

ok, so lets set the stage. Lazarus is dead, he has been in that state for 4 days. and like Martha said "by now he stinks". he had layed there wrapped up in his graveclothes rotting and stinking, thus he is in a cloud of stink. this no doubt had started to permeate the graveclothes, and they themselve now stank and where putrid. it is in this condition that Jesus comes to him. as the Spirit of God comes over this lifeless body, it sits up and he takes his first breath as a "born again" man. this breath is a lung full of rotting stench, you see. though he was born a new the clothes he was wrapped in where still full of the stink of death. are we not the same? inside, we are a fresh new man. born again by the grace of God, but outside! we are still wrapped in stinking rotting death clothes. but the story does not end there. the sweet words of our Lord cut through the stink, "Loose him, and let him go". praise God for the Day cometh when we to will be loosed of our graveclothes, loosed by the Lord of Glory!!