And the Dead Arose

Looking For Lazarus: A Preview of the Resurrection
Regis Martin
Scepter Publishers
2021
131 pages
ISBN 9781594174278

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This delightful little book of sixteen short chapters plus a prologue and an epilogue delve into the story of the death of Lazarus and his being miraculously brought back to life by Jesus. The story occupies almost all of chapter eleven of John’s Gospel though, intriguingly, it is not mentioned by any of the other evangelists. Indeed none of them even mentions Lazarus.

In the prologue the author delves into the mystery of death and how it has been touched on by so many authors and poets – there isn’t an index, but he must have referenced upwards of fifty of them, from Dante to Gerald Manley Hopkins and from Henry James to Flannery O’Connor. Then each chapter deals with a short section of the narrative and draws conclusions for us. Each one ends with an appropriate prayer.

Why did Jesus delay going to Bethany when he heard that Lazarus was ill? What point was he making with the disciples when he said that he was glad for them that he was not there? And why did he decide to go to Judea when there was the imminent risk of his being captured and put to death?

The answer to some of these questions is nicely summed up on page thirty-three: “It was precisely for the gift of faith that Jesus had put off going to Lazarus in the first place. But in going now, Jesus, armed with the very weaponry of God himself is able all the more convincingly to demonstrate his capacity to destroy death.” Later he writes: “[And] if Lazarus had been prevented from dying … how would they ever know that he had the power to break the kingdom of death in two?”

The book also gets into the characters of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, though of course, of Lazarus there is nothing to add, as extraordinarily, like St Joseph, not a word of his is written down. We would love if only he told us something of what the four days after his death were like, but we learn nothing about that. What we do learn most emphatically is that, as the title suggests, his raising is a preview of the resurrection of Jesus.

All in all a delightful little book with excellent insights into Jesus’ disciples, Martha, Mary and of course into death itself, as described in a quote from Hamlet on the very first page: “the undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns.”