When Faith Meets the Tomb, Believing Before Seeing

The story of Lazarus isn't just about a man who died and came back to life. It's about something far more challenging to our comfortable Christianity: the painful disappointment God feels when those closest to Him struggle to believe.

Picture this scene: Jesus arrives at Bethany, where His dear friend Lazarus has been dead for four days. The professional mourners are there. The tomb is sealed. The grief is thick in the air. But something unexpected happens that changes everything we thought we knew about this familiar passage.

## The Gut Punches of Unbelief

Mary and Martha, two women who knew Jesus intimately, both deliver the same devastating statement: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Read that again slowly. These weren't strangers. These were people who had sat at Jesus' feet, who had witnessed His power, who had heard His teaching. Yet even they couldn't imagine that death wasn't the final word.

Their response reveals something uncomfortable about human nature: we default to hopelessness. When circumstances look impossible, we perform the funeral rites of our faith. We wrap up our expectations in grave clothes, roll the stone over our prayers, and walk away convinced that some situations are simply too far gone.

## The Tears That Changed Everything

"Jesus wept." The shortest verse in Scripture carries profound weight. But here's what most people miss: Jesus wasn't weeping for Lazarus. Why would He mourn someone He fully intended to resurrect in the next few minutes?

The original Greek word used to describe Jesus' emotional state is "embrihomai"—meaning to snort with anger or indignation. Jesus was deeply troubled, disappointed even, by the lack of faith displayed by those who should have known better.

He wept for the unbelief of His closest friends.

Think about that. The Son of God, standing at a tomb, grieving not over death but over the failure of faith. How much more does it break His heart when we—who have the completed Scriptures, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and two thousand years of testimony—still struggle to believe without seeing?

## Who Have We Put in a Tomb?

This question should unsettle us. Who have we written off as too far gone? Which family member have we stopped praying for because they've rejected the gospel one too many times? What situation have we declared dead and buried?

We wrap people up in our assessments: "They're too addicted." "They're too angry." "They've rejected God too many times." We place the stone of our limited understanding over the tomb of God's unlimited power.

But here's the revolutionary truth: the Jesus who can resurrect a spiritually dead person can save anyone, anywhere, anytime. We are not in a position to tell God what He can and cannot do.

First Thessalonians 5:17 commands us to "pray without ceasing." Not pray until it seems pointless. Not pray until we've decided someone is beyond hope. Pray without ceasing. Is another person's soul not worth that kind of persistent effort?

## Faith That Thanks Before Seeing

Philippians 4:6 tells us to present our requests to God "with thanksgiving." This phrase unlocks something profound about the nature of biblical faith. How do you pray with thanksgiving for something you haven't received yet?

You thank God in advance for what you believe He will do.

This is the faith that moves mountains. This is the faith that opens blind eyes. This is the faith that calls dead things back to life. We live in a culture that says, "I'll believe it when I see it." But God asks us to believe it even though we haven't seen it yet.

Prayer without faith is like mashed potatoes without gravy—technically functional but missing the essential element that makes it satisfying. Faith is the substance that transforms our prayers from wishful thinking into powerful declarations of God's ability.

## The Stench of Spiritual Death

When Martha protested about opening the tomb, her concern was practical: "Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he has been dead four days."

Here's an uncomfortable truth: people who haven't been spiritually resurrected do stink. They carry the odor of death, decay, and separation from God. We all did before Christ made us new.

But Jesus didn't let the stench stop Him. He commanded, "Take away the stone."

Notice what Jesus did and didn't do. He asked where they laid Lazarus. He told them to move the stone. He instructed them to remove the grave clothes. But only Jesus could speak life into death. Only His voice could penetrate the tomb and call Lazarus forth.

The same is true in spiritual resurrection. Only God can save. Only Christ can make someone born again. But we have a role to play. We move stones of obstruction. We remove grave clothes of old habits and worldly thinking through discipleship and fellowship.

## Taking Off the Grave Clothes

When someone comes to faith in Christ, they're a new creation according to 2 Corinthians 5:17. But they often still smell like the tomb. They're wrapped in the grave clothes of their old life—old thought patterns, old habits, old relationships that pull them back toward death.

The church's responsibility is to help remove those grave clothes. We get new believers into Bible study. We surround them with fellowship. We disciple them in the ways of Christ. We help get the stink blown off, as the saying goes.

Romans 12:2 calls us to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." This doesn't happen automatically. It requires intentional community, patient teaching, and the washing of water by the Word.

## Believe, Then See

Jesus told Martha, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" The order matters. Believe first, then see. Not see, then believe.

This reverses everything our rational, Western minds want to embrace. We've become so intellectual that we've educated the faith right out of our Christianity. Some have even been taught that God doesn't work miracles anymore, that healing ceased with the apostles, that the supernatural has been replaced by the sensible.

Show me that in Scripture. You can't, because it's not there.

The writer of Hebrews declares that Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). If He raised the dead then, He can raise the dead now. If He healed the sick then, He can heal the sick now. If He restored hope then, He can restore hope now.

## The Call to Be Different

Those who have experienced resurrection power are called to be different. We're called to have faith that believes without seeing. We're called to pray with thanksgiving for what hasn't manifested yet. We're called to refuse to put anyone or anything in a permanent tomb.

The spirit within believers operates opposite to the natural world. While the world says "seeing is believing," we say "believing is seeing." While the world writes people off, we keep praying. While the world accepts death as final, we serve a God who specializes in resurrection.

## Moving Forward

As you go about your week, consider these questions:

Who have you placed in a tomb? What person or situation have you declared beyond God's reach? It's time to roll away that stone of unbelief.

Are you praying with faith and thanksgiving, or are you just going through religious motions? Faith transforms prayer from routine to power.

When new believers enter your sphere of influence, are you helping remove their grave clothes, or are you standing back expecting them to figure it out alone?

The Jesus who wept at the tomb of Lazarus still weeps today—not over death, but over our failure to believe in His power to overcome it. Let's not be the ones who cause Him grief through our unbelief. Let's be the ones who believe before we see, who pray without ceasing, and who never, ever give up on the resurrection power of our unchanging God.

After all, the same voice that called Lazarus from the tomb is still speaking today. The question is: are we listening with faith?