"Lazarus"

I've been sampling a lot of music lately. One of my good friends suggested that I listen to Bellarive. I had never heard of them before, and now I can't stop listening. Bellarive has a new album dropping on 7/22 but have already released a song called "Lazarus". This is the one in particular that I just have not been able to stop listening to.

"Out of breath, a permanent condition
Taken by the night
This bone and flesh can never find a reason
To breathe in again

He said, 'Come out! Come out from your hiding!
Just as you are
Come out from the dark!'

Even when the dead man's sleeping
Resurrection calls to restore
Even here and now
You are what He's calling for

So take a breath and break the night
Stranger to the light
Wind of God, dig up the graves
Breathe into the slayed

Here for sure, a permanent solution
Swallowed up the night
A voice so pure
Giving bones a reason
To breathe in again

He said, 'Come out! Come out from your hiding!
Just as you are
Come out from the dark!'

Even when the dead man's sleeping
Resurrection calls to restore
Even here and now
You are what He's calling for
So sleep no more!

So take a breath and break the night
Stranger to the light
Wind of God, dig up the graves
Come breathe into the slayed"

__________

Growing up in church, I've heard the story of Lazarus told over and over again, which is not a bad thing. It's an amazing story. Until now, however, I've only ever heard it told in order to magnify Christ's power over circumstance. Pastors, preachers, and ministers use the story to encourage their congregation that if Christ can resurrect Lazarus from the dead, He can surely help you through whatever it is you're going through, which is absolutely true... but that's not all this story is about. One pastor used the story to make the point that Christ Himself was capable of grief, as He grieved over Lazarus' death and was greatly troubled by it. This is also a really good point, as we sometimes need to be reminded that Christ was fully human.

Bellarive tells the story in a way that I had yet to hear in church. I think that the meaning of the song is this:

You are Lazarus.

How many times in your life have you felt spiritually dead? Technically we are all spiritually dead until we accept the gift of life that Christ offers. For me personally, this feeling has almost always been self-inflicted, caused by my own apathy and lukewarmness.

I'll dig my own tomb with my own selfish ambitions, like when I choose to get a little more sleep instead of waking up early to start the day in God's Word, or when I refuse to bless someone because I'd be going out of my own way to do so. Next, I'll mummify myself in an apathetic cocoon, and the tighter I wrap it, the harder it is to escape. Then, exhausted after putting myself in this state to begin with, I'll lie down in the tomb and wait for the strength to dig myself out again.

Spiritually sleeping. That's what I'd call it.

The Bible makes it clear that Jesus was moved and troubled by Lazarus' death. In fact, John 11:35 reads, "Jesus wept." That in and of itself is the entire verse, which to me, speaks louder than any more words could. Whether or not Christ weeps when He comes to our tombs and finds us spiritually asleep, or worse, spiritually dead, I do not know, but I can't imagine Him being anything but heartbroken.

For that reason, and our own weakness, just as Bellarive conveys in their song, only Christ and His pure voice and power can bring us back out of that dead (or sleeping) state. His Resurrection is calling to restore us. He's calling us to come out of the heartache, apathy, doubt, pain, or whatever it is that our tombs are made out of.

One of my favorites lines from the song is, "Just as you are", because I feel like a lot of people (believers or non-believers) get caught up on this: Even though they hear His voice beckoning them to come out, they worry that they're not good enough to do so. But Jesus is calling us to come out of our tombs right then and there, as broken and imperfect as we are. Lazarus himself came out still wrapped up in cloth.

The story of Jesus and Lazarus is so powerful, and I think Bellarive does a great job of capturing some of that power, just in the musicality of their song, lyrics aside. It's not very often that I feel like a song really captures the essence of what it's about, but I think that Bellarive really did it with this one. The music is very... moving.

Next time you read the story of Lazarus, try to insert yourself into the story, right into the tomb, and hear the voice of Christ calling you out, just as He called out Lazarus.

"Even here and now
You are what He's calling for
So sleep no more!"