John 11:43-44
And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.  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.

What a dramatic moment this was, an amazing miracle.  It may not have been accompanied by an earthquake and lightning.  It wasn’t a big spectacle, but just a man wrapped in graveclothes shuffling out of that tomb.  But it represents that vital truth that Jesus was trying to demonstrate—that He is the resurrection and the life, and there is life after death, but it can only come from Him.

Jesus demonstrates His power in the real things of life, the places where the divine and mortal can connect.  Those times and places have the potential to move our hearts and minds off of the earthly and temporary and to start to consider the eternal.  When Jesus gives life at a funeral, surrounded by mourning and sorrow and loss, it has a big impact on the people who witnessed that event.  When the state of death seemed so permanent, a dead man rose again, and in those moments, people start to see Jesus differently.

Death is so often seen as inevitable, undoable.  Death is what many fear most.  But what many don’t realize is that without Jesus, they are already dead.  This physical and earthly life is just a temporary state.  A real life beyond this one is yet to come.  Our new life in Christ is just as miraculous and amazing as what happened to Lazarus, but it often comes without a lot of fanfare.  It’s just us shuffling out of the grave toward a different life, brought about by the power of Christ.

This miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead may be seen as one of the most spectacular recorded in Scripture, but really it’s just a continuation of what God had been doing from the very beginning—giving life, doing the impossible, bringing forth hope from the most hopeless situations.  And when Jesus Himself went forth out of His own tomb, He secured forever eternal life for all who would trust in Him.  So may we trust in Jesus for the kind of life that only He can give, life that cannot be overcome by death.