Friends, he is not kidding. He’s not exaggerating. He’s not even using a parable. He is giving us a concrete example of how to live, and I don’t like it. I don’t like it because I worry it might be too hard for me. I hear that same worry creeping in when the disciples respond, “Lord, increase our faith!” Underneath those words, what they’re really asking is, “Lord, make us miraculously better at forgiveness,” or even “Lord, make things easier for us.”

Let’s live in the pages of Scripture. Let them reshape how we see the world and the people around us. Because Lazarus is at the gate. And Christ is calling us into a life that is generous, watchful, awake, and full of grace.