So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone.
—John 11:38-41a

I have a sneaky suspicion that being a teacher is very closely related to being a parent. Not to imply that teachers can replace parents in any way, but I think parents and teachers experience similar trials when dealing with their kids.

“Do I really have to do that?… But whyyyy do I have to do that?”

Any parents out there ever hear that one when you tell your kids to take out the trash or wash the dishes?

There have been so many times in my seven years of teaching when my kids, who haven’t yet mastered the difference between they’re, their, and there, complain about having to do an assignment they don’t understand. 

It’s not so much that they don’t understand how to do that assignment, but that they don’t understand how learning to communicate clearly and efficiently will help them when they graduate from high school. 

We know the joke’s on them because it doesn’t matter which direction they go in, they are going to have to communicate with people. But they don’t know that, so instead of simply obeying and doing as I ask, they whine, complain, and sometimes outright refuse to complete the assignment.

We see something similar happening here in John 11, although, perhaps, with a little less teen angst and a better tone of voice. 

By this point in the story, Martha has already spoken to Jesus once. When He first got to town, she heard about it and went to meet Him. And He tells her, “‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.’”(vs.25-26)

Again, I’m no Bible scholar, but that sounds like some pretty big foreshadowing to me. 

Now fast forward to verse 39. Jesus gives an order that clearly doesn’t make sense: “Open the tomb.” 

At this point, Lazarus’ body would have been quickly decomposing. There is also a belief described in the Talmud, an extra-biblical compilation of Jewish law and tradition, which held that the soul of a dead person will hover over the body for three days before moving on. So in the minds of everyone present, even though Jesus had raised people from the dead before, to remove that stone would be as pointless as it was unpleasant.

I’m sure everyone was thinking it. Yeah, Jesus has raised people from the dead before, but their souls were still nearby and they hadn’t decomposed. There’s no hope for Lazarus. He’s too far gone.

Can you imagine if the people at the tomb had done the same thing so many of my students have over the years and simply refused to complete the assignment? 

The order was simple, the course of action was clear. But they did not understand what God was doing and had they not obeyed, they would have missed out on seeing the glory of the God who is big enough to overcome all odds.

We will be faced with those moments. The ones where the task is clear, but it seems so strange, so futile or insignificant that we hesitate and are tempted to ignore the calling altogether. And that’s exactly where the stretch comes in. 

It is hard to let go of the feeling of control long enough to follow an order we don’t understand. We want to be in the know because it makes us feel like we’re the ones holding the steering wheel, but in reality, all that is required of us in those moments is to obey. The quicker the better.

So this week, let’s listen for those things God tells us to do even though they don’t make sense. Maybe He’s leading you to pray for someone you haven’t talked to in years. Or maybe He leads you to bless someone by paying for their meal or just paying them a compliment even though you don’t know them. Instead of hesitating, let’s follow where He is leading. Because when we do, we may get the chance to see God do some pretty amazing things.