John 11:39 · World English Bible
John 11:39 Meaning Jesus Said
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
What does John 11:39 mean?
The one who says take away the stone is your own awareness of being, the power that raises whatever seems dead. What lies dead is a desire so long buried that you have written it off as impossible.
From the Manifestation reading below.
John 11:39 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Manifestation
MANIFESTATION
Manifestation
The one who says take away the stone is your own awareness of being, the power that raises whatever seems dead. What lies dead is a desire so long buried that you have written it off as impossible. Martha speaks for the mind that counts the days and smells the decay, the part of you that says too much time has passed, the thing is finished, it has begun to rot.
The stone is that reasoned objection rolled across the desire, the settled verdict that it cannot live now. Taking the stone away is the refusal to keep the verdict in place. Consciousness does not argue with the four days or the smell. It calls the buried wish out as though the decay were nothing. Whatever a person is willing to believe alive begins to live again, however long it has lain in the ground.
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Live John 11:39 today
- Write down the thing you decided was too late for you, then write the reason you gave, and read the reason back as just a sentence you once said. It is an opinion, not a fact.
- When a friend lists all the reasons something cannot work for them, do not pile on your own reasons. Ask instead what they would do if the clock were not a problem.
- When your mind starts counting the years you lost today, in traffic, in the shower, let the counting run out without agreeing with it. The arithmetic is not the verdict.
What have you buried only because of how long it has been?
The same truth in other traditions
Zen
The blocking thing is usually your own reasoning laid across the door. Move the reasoning and see what was behind it the whole time.
Stoicism · Epictetus
It is not the event that stops you, it is your judgment about the event. The judgment is the stone, and it is yours to move.
Taoism · Zhuangzi
The frog in the well argues about the size of the sky from inside the well. Its certainty is the wall, not the water.
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