With Mary, Martha, and their friends, Christ Jesus stood before the tomb of Lazarus and prayed the prayer of faith and spiritual understanding. Lifting up his eyes to heaven, he humbly said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me." According to material sense testimony, Lazarus had been dead four days, but our Master did not accept the evidence of the senses. The people standing by thought of man as mortal, and believed that Lazarus was bound by certain material laws. Jesus, having a better understanding of man as the idea of God, called out, "Lazarus, come forth," and his friend was restored to life again, visible to his friends.
Commenting on this demonstration of God's power, our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 555), "Our great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in death." According to Christian Science, man is not subject to sickness and death, but is the "individualized manifestation" of Life, God. He goes on expressing Life forever in spite of physical sense testimony to the contrary. It was this true understanding of man as the manifestation of God which raised the dead and gave our Master power to perform his wonderful works.
The same spiritual understanding is made available to us today through the teachings of Christian Science, and anyone who clearly understands these teachings may follow in some degree the example of Jesus. Did not our Master say, "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; . . . they shall take up serpents; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover"?
