The Lazarus Effect

John 11:44

This quick mini series was inspired by the man himself…Lazarus! This passage has been on my heart to study and so, I did! I took my notes as usual, but for some reason the story hit a different part of me, although I couldn’t see it immediately. It took me back to 2015 when the movie “The Lazarus effect” debuted. Now, it wasn’t the best movie ever, let alone, horror movie I’ve seen, (not about that life now) but I decided to go see this movie based on the name alone….again, not about that life now! I knew the movie was a horror film and more than likely had to do with zombie or some form of resurrecting the dead, but I had no idea it would find its way into my faith- based blog in the future!

In short, this bad movie was about a team of scientists who found a way to…you guessed it! Resurrect the dead. The plot twist is that the person they ended up resurrecting was one of the team members who died in the lab and they tried to save by using the proven serum. Unbeknownst to them, she’d resurrect with supernatural powers, etc.. you know.

The connection between this bad movie and the bible story that fueled it, is in the resurrection of something that doesn’t have the power to initiate resurrection themselves. We limit resurrection to Jesus and rightfully so, since he’s the only one who could cause such a miracle while submitting to its antithesis. In this part of my life, I’ve noticed I’ve ignored subtle resurrections of old habits, behaviors and attitudes that I KNOW Jesus didn’t call those things back to life.

The essence of what I’m getting at is in the end of the story of Lazarus’s resurrection. Verses 43 & 44 to be exact, when Jesus calls Lazarus’s name.

1. Lazarus responded to Jesus’s call to defy the natural; yet when he came back to life, he came without the sickness he died from and with a form of health he didn’t have before he died. Some things are only removed by dying to it.

2. There’s healing in a God ordained death. We all are called to a emotional, spiritual death that is the result of a sickness that overwhelms us (sin). When we begin to live for God, death of the previous state is automatic. We learn how to chose Him over our preferences. Notice I said automatic and not definite, because we intentionally choose Jesus over everything else daily.

3. After Lazarus got up, he was still in his funeral (grave) clothing. Don’t believe you’re still dead just because the outside doesn’t match the inside immediately. You’ve been changed! Just because someone can tell where you’ve been, it doesn’t nullify where or what you are now! If anything, it speaks volumes of your testimony.

We’re not done with Lazarus just yet, part 2 is next week!