The Lazarus Effect

And the Countdown to the Cross

Original image by Frank Zimmerman - Altered by the author

Earlier this week I shared my post from Good Friday of last year. That post stands out as my personal favorite out of the handful I have done thus far. I focused on Christ’s imminent betrayal and what occurred in the final hours of his life heading to the cross. It certainly is not the complete picture, but rather a different approach, yet hopefully still gospel centric, to what transpired than what I typically have encountered at various churches and in various sermons over the years during Easter time. You can listen to, or read, it here:

It is interesting thinking back to that Easter season in comparison to this one. Much has changed. One thing that hasn’t is Easter. Christ’s death on the cross, for you, for me, and for all who recognize that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”(Romans 5:8). What a blessing it is to come again to this Easter season and reflect on what Christ did on the cross. What he did in death. What he did in resurrection. For us. When we deserve none of it.

Last year, I was finishing up Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani while I was on a plane. I was headed to El Paso to meet Kyle Seraphin, another fbi Whistleblower. We then headed to Las Cruces, New Mexico, to retrieve his family’s household goods that had been in storage for sometime. In similar fashion, the fbi retaliated against Kyle too, forcing him and his wife to make difficult decisions on how best to move forward and care for their young family. Our short time together was also a blessing, although I didn’t recognize it as much at the time.

Then, we were task oriented with getting his stuff and driving 10 hours from New Mexico to Austin, TX. Since, I’ve been able to reflect on it more and see more of the reasons why the Lord has had our paths cross. The same goes for Steve Friend, who, at that time last year, I had yet to meet in person. That would come about six weeks later when we testified in May of 2023. But, some of those details are already out there. Some may never be shared publicly, and none of them really have much to do with this post. Other than to point to God’s sovereignty over all of our lives.

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” -Job 42:2

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As you may have ascertained from the title, this post is going to focus on perhaps Jesus’s most profound miracle; raising Lazarus from the dead. The Cleveland Clinic describes the Lazarus effect as “when someone a healthcare provider has declared dead suddenly regains blood flow and appears to come back to life. The medical term for this phenomenon is “autoresuscitation,” which refers to the return of spontaneous circulation after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has ended. Most people don’t survive for long after the brief return of blood flow.”

They go on to say that this phenomenon is rare in medical literature and that it is named after the Biblical account of when Jesus raised a man from the dead. Furthermore they state the term Lazarus effect “is a bit misleading in the context of medical auto-resuscitation. That’s because people who experience the Lazarus effect don’t actually die and resurrect. Instead, their vital signs indicate their organs have stopped functioning when in fact there’s just a delay in the return of blood flow after CPR. This delay makes it look like a person has died and then come back to life.” As we will see, this medical phenomenon is massively different than Jesus’s miracle.

Last year, the Easter post was really focused on the events of Good Friday. This year, we’re going back in time. But only about a week or so. The primary section of Scripture that we are really going to blaze through is John 11. I’ll note too, this is not an exquisite exposition of all that is going on in John 11 or the other parts of Scripture that will be included. I’m going to highlight some aspects and some reflection as to why it is an important piece of Biblical truth to look at heading into Easter Sunday. I’m sure I still won’t hit the nail precisely on the head.

Lazarus being raised from the dead, and some other events in and around this time frame have left me with a sense of dread and foreboding as I’ve studied them because I know where they lead. They lead to the cross. They lead to brutality and rejection. They lead to murder of the most innocent and most righteous man who ever walked the earth. They are a premonition of things to come. Surely Jesus knew this too. How could he not? Fully man, yet fully God, it is unmistakable that he knew his time was near.

He alluded to his knowledge of this truth when he said back in John 7:6, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.” Or even further back in John 2:4 when he said, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” Then again in John 7:8 he more directly points to the hour of his crucifixion when he says, “I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come” reiterating what he had first touched on in verse 6. A third time in Chapter 7, in verse 30, we are told, “So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.” Then a little bit later in John 8:20 we’re told, “These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.” Being both God and man, Jesus was fully committed to the Father’s timeline. He was fully committed to the Father’s sovereignty for his manly life on earth. He was fully committed to the end. He was fully committed to the countdown to the cross.

In John 12:23, shortly after Lazarus is raised from the dead, on what we recognize as Palm Sunday today, Jesus says, “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. John tells us also in Chapter 13:1, “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loves his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Finally in John 17:1 some of Jesus’s final words before his betrayal and arrest are the beginning of a prayer that starts with him saying, “Father, the hour has come.” Jesus knew where his earthly life was leading. He knew all along. He knew when his hour had not yet come and he knew when his hour had come. He was fully committed to the cross.

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Perhaps the most powerful earthly sign of Christ’s earthly ministry until his own resurrection was that of raising Lazarus. It was a sign and premonition of true faith, but also of betrayal. It was a sign and premonition of what was yet to come for him. It was an act so powerful in its witness of Christ’s deity that he knew would lead to his murder at the hands of the authorities. Jesus understood God the Father’s sovereignty and timeline. He was committed to it. He knew this would be the final act that would lead to his murder on the cross. It is the final example of his lordship that sends the authorities over the edge and firmly roots murderous intent in their heart.

At the end of John 10 we are told that the Jews were about to stone Jesus. Before they picked up their stones, he had unmistakably declared his deity. This was blasphemous to them. This was the third time John tells us that they wanted to stone him. The first and second times were in John 5:18 and John 8:59, respectively. Although not explicitly stated in John 5, stoning was often the method used by the Jews under Roman rule. Especially if someone was claiming to be God as this was in accordance with Levitical law. Although they did not have the authority to carry out a death sentence, mob rule would sometimes prevail and people would be stoned; especially if claiming to be God, as Jesus did on each occasion.

This interaction closes out John 10 with Jesus telling them, “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” The final verse of the chapter says, “Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.”

So now we finally come to John 11 which gives us the account of Lazarus being raised from the dead. In his introduction to a sermon series on this chapter, John MacArthur says, “we come to the last and most monumental public miracle that Jesus did.  It’s the climactic one for John.  There is one later miracle, but it’s in the dark and very private because of how it happened.  It’s in the garden and it was Jesus reaching over and giving Malchus a new ear after Peter had hacked it off.  But apart from that miracle in the dark, this is the last great public miracle that Jesus did. 

“Nowhere in no other account of His miraculous work do we see more magnificently the coming together of His humanity and His deity.  We see Him in His full majesty, in His full person.  We see His humanity and His sympathy and His affections and His relationships to an earthly family.  We see His sovereignty in His power and His display of glory in overwhelming death.  This miracle, as important as it was, and being the culminating miracle in His public ministry, it is important, but this miracle occurs only in John.  The other gospel writers don’t give us an account of this. 

“But John writes that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with very careful detail, and I think a unique beauty of expression.  This account is provided for us for a number of reasons.  First of all, as I said, to declare one more final supreme, incomparable, undeniable proof of the claims of Jesus, affirmed by many, many eye witnesses that He is who He claimed to be.  This is the resurrection of a man who had been dead for four days.  Decay would have set in because Jews do not embalm, not like Egyptians who did everything they could to preserve the corpse.  When someone died, they were in the grave as fast as possible because decay set in immediately. 

“The purpose of this miracle is, again, to put on display the power and sovereign, divine nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it’s not just that.  It’s that for the sake of increasing the faith of those who were eager to believe.  If you look at verse 15 in this passage, Jesus says about not being there when he died, “I’m glad for your sakes, I was not there so that you may believe.”  This miracle not only is an undeniable permanent evidence of the deity of Christ.  It was for the purpose of producing greater faith in the disciples.

“But there’s also a third purpose of this miracle and that is to give the impetus to the skeptics to press the issue of Jesus’s murder because God’s timing is very near. This happens just before His final Passover.  He is to die by God’s plan on the Passover as the true Passover Lamb.”

And that, right there, the third reason that MacArthur mentions is why we celebrate Easter. Jesus is the final sacrifice anyone who believes needs to be saved. Furthermore, he knew that his disciples would need greater faith in the days ahead. As you may recall, later Judas betrays Jesus, all the disciples flee at the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Peter eventually denies Jesus three times. Yet, all of the disciples, except Judas, had a true, redeeming faith. They all would go on to spread the gospel of Christ. They all, and others who believed like Stephen and Paul, would be martyred, except for John who was exiled to an island called Patmos.

In the book of Acts 17:6-8 it says, And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.” This attribution can be applied to all the apostles. These men who turned the world upside down; and Jesus knew that it would. But he also knew that he first needed to bolster their faith by raising Lazarus from the dead.

Early in John 11 it says that Martha and Mary, both sisters to Lazarus sent word to Jesus saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”Jesus loved all three of them, yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed put for two more doors. Undoubtedly this was intentional. His time had not yet come; and either had Lazarus’s. This was an intentionally done by Jesus to make the miracle he knew he would soon do all the more powerful. All the more powerful to those who believed. But also all the more powerful to those who hated him already. Then he told the disciples they were going to go back to Judea. This was met with fear. They questioned him saying, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?”

Eventually Thomas, commonly known as “Doubting Thomas,” says to the other disciples, “let us also go, that we may die with him.” Thomas almost always gets a bad rap for doubting Christ’s resurrection. It strikes me as a common story I heard in Sunday school. I think Thomas has a lot more to offer than he is often given credit for. Most of that may come some other day. But, in this instance, he ceded his personal desire to live. The disciples assumed that not only would the Jews kill Jesus, but they’d kill them too. Nonetheless, he agrees to go. This is a picture of unmatched loyalty. He’s basically saying, “I’ll follow you Lord. Even if it means to death.” Wow. And isn’t that what we are called to do? To deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him. That’s what Jesus said in Matthew 16:24.

credit: https://www.oursundayvisitor.com/st-thomas-apostle/

So they do. Jesus and the disciples go back to Judea. When they arrive they learn that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. At this juncture, there can be no question as to Lazarus’s death. MacArthur explains it in another sermon this way, “Here's what happens in four days, pretty grisly stuff.  The heart has stopped beating.  The body cells are then deprived of oxygen, and they begin to die.  Blood drains from throughout the circulatory system and pools in the low places.  Muscles begin to stiffen in what is known commonly by the Latin, rigor mortis.  That sets in after three hours.

By 24 hours, the body has lost all its heat.  The muscles then lose their rigor mortis in 36 hours, and by 72 hours rigor mortis has vanished.  All stiffness is gone and the body is soft.  Looking a little bit deeper, as cells begin to die, bacteria go to work.  Your body is filled with bacteria, but that's another subject.  The bacteria in the body of a dead person begin to attack, breaking the cells down. The decomposing tissue takes on a horrific look and smell and emits green liquids by the 72nd hour.  The tissue releases hydrogen sulfide and methane as well as other gases.  A horrible smell is emitted.  Insects and animals will consume parts of the body if they can get at it. 

Meet Lazarus.  That's the condition he's in when Jesus arrives.  That's important.  Everyone knows he is dead.  As Martha says in verse 39, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench." I don’t know how many people reading this have dealt with, what cops may refer to as, “ripe” dead bodies. But it is grisly. The longer a body is dead, the worse it is. Having dealt with DOAs, or “dead on arrival” calls for service as a police officer, they can be pretty nasty after a few days. Whatever skin is touching a surface becomes a deep purple as blood and other fluids settle. The skin on top becomes cold to the touch and pale. Our lives are typically filled with other life, so it is often unnatural to see, move or deal with the dead. If you’ve ever been to a funeral, you have an idea of what this is like.

But here, Jesus is surrounded by a few true believers like the disciples, Mary and Martha, probably a few others. But he is also surrounded by unbelief. People who he came to earth to save. He’s conducted miracles and teaching, yet still they reject him. As the countdown to the cross is getting closer, and as he knows what he is about to do will only further set the reality of the cross in motion, Jesus is becoming overwhelmed. Overwhelmed in the human sense.

After Martha confesses that she believes he is “the Christ, the Son of God,” she goes and gets her sister Mary. Mary tells Jesus that if he had been there, her brother would not have died. The sense of what he is about to do for Mary, Martha and Lazarus is overwhelming him. The love he has for them is overwhelming him. The rejection of the unbelievers is overwhelming him. The sense of where he knows this will lead is overwhelming him.

John tells us, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his sprint and greatly troubled.” Moved and troubled for the reasons just mentioned, and probably others as well. John continues, “And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept.” Jesus weeps. What a human thing to do. What a manly thing to do. What a Godly thing to do.

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” -Psalm 34:18

Jesus then being “deeply moved again” went to Lazarus’s tomb and says, ““Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” Then, “he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” John tells us, “the man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

With that, Jesus sealed his own fate. He knew where this was heading. He submitted to the Father’s will and knew where it would lead. John goes on to tell us that many of the Jews who had also comb to the tomb believed, “but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romand will come and take away both our place and our nation.” A few verses later, after hearing Caiaphas the high priest, who you may be familiar with from Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani, we’re told, “So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.”

Remember, although under Roman rule, the Pharisees still had their own judicial system. They were they quasi religious, political and judicial system for the Jews. It has gone this way time and time again throughout history, including many Biblical examples. If you speak out against the government, they will crush you.

Of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah said this, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut odd out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

“And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

Jesus knew it was always going to lead here. He knew the authorities were always going to be the ones to use their power for evil and not for good. He knew too, that what they meant for evil, God meant for good. On this Holy Saturday, I hope you will reflect on God’s good for your life. The good He wants for you. The good He has shown us with the countdown to the cross through Lazarus. The good He has sealed through Christ’s finished work on that cross and resurrection that we will celebrate tomorrow. I pray you all have a reflective and Happy Easter.