Baptized like Lazarus

“The meaning of Lazarus for us is the way he dramatizes the life of the baptized Christian. We have all died into Jesus and risen again, even in this life, as Paul put it in his letter to the Romans:


‘How can we who died to sin continue to live in sin? Or do you not realize that we, those who were baptized into Messiah Jesus, were baptized into his death. We were laid in the grave with him, by our baptism into death, so that just as Messiah was raised from the death in the splendor of the Father, we may journey on in renewed life.’

Followers of Jesus are the dead and the living. He daily wrestles us free from the grip of death. We have gone into the tomb and come back. We are Lazarus.”

- Garry Wills
[photo: lessing-photo.com]