Bright Glory

Somewhere from the past there is a memory of someone saying that it was a good thing Jesus said, "Lazarus, come out!"  (John 11:43)  Had he simply said, "Come out!" there would have been a mass uprising from the dead that would have made Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones pale in comparison.  The graveyard scene set forth near Bethany was surely an unforgettable moment for all those who had gathered as mourners and curiosity seekers.  With hands and feet and face still bound with the coverings of death, Lazarus stepped forth to walk the dirt paths of the earth again.

 

From earth to glory and back to earth again was the path journeyed by this friend of Jesus.  While it would seem certain to us that his eyes must have blinked a thousand times at the brightness of the day as the bands of death were pulled away, it was surely nothing compared to the brilliant brightness of glory he experienced when breath slipped out of his body the last time.  It is an experience claimed by a few who have walked a path similar to Lazarus, but for the rest of us earth dwellers, it is impossible to even wrap our imagination around the brightness of a life so filled with presence of a God who is full of glory and majesty. 

There have been those moments when the veil between here and there became so thin and transparent that glimpses of glory came as blessings.  Isaiah wrote about such a moment when he described the moment of his calling in the Temple.  (Isaiah 6)  The gospel writers spoke of Peter, James, and John sharing such a moment in what is called the Mount of Transfiguration.  In both cases the brightness of the revealed glory was too much for human eyes to fully see and too full of God to grasp with the mind given to us at birth.  What we see of the glory of God is always overpowering and sends us to our knees, but there is a greater and brighter glory which awaits us on the other side of the thin veil which separates here from there and earth from heaven.