Pastor Jeff Strite heard a great story about Lazarus. It told of a time in Lazarus\u2019 life when he\u2019d grown old. All through his life Lazarus had told and retold the story of his resurrection. The Roman Emperor at that time was the cruel and evil Caligula. He ruled with an iron fist, relying on executions to keep himself in power. \u201cThey do not have to love me,\u201d Caligula said, \u201cas long as they fear me.\u201d He kept the people in fear of their deaths by his hand.<\/p>\n
But there was a new faith in Rome, a faith that Caligula grew to hate. These Christians had a faith in a God that caused them to not be afraid of death. And one of the most powerful preachers of this faith was Lazarus. Soon, Lazarus\u2019 stories reached Caligula\u2019s throne and he decided to make an example of him.<\/p>\n
He brought Lazarus before him in chains and demanded: \u201cRenounce your faith in this Christ!\u201d But Lazarus refused. In anger, Caligula shouted, \u201cIf you don\u2019t renounce your faith, I\u2019ll have you put to death.\u201d For a moment Lazarus said nothing … then he began to laugh.<\/p>\n
Caligula became even more angry and shouted, \u201cDon\u2019t you realize I have the power of life and death! I have the power to put you to death!\u201d But Lazarus only laughed longer and louder.<\/p>\n
Then finally he looked at the emperor and said, \u201cYou cannot hold me in fear, Caligula – death is dead!\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a great story! Unfortunately, it\u2019s not true. It\u2019s a fictional account of Lazarus\u2019 life found in a play by Eugene O\u2019Neill called, \u201cLazarus Laughed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pastor Strite was bummed out when he found it was fiction. But then he realized that the truth about this story of Lazarus was even more powerful than he had realized at first. Eugene O\u2019Neill, one of the leading playwrights of the 20th century, was an unbeliever, a humanist who refused to accept the resurrection of Christ from the dead.<\/p>\n
But even this atheist was struck by the power of the Biblical story of Lazarus. He said of his play, \u201cCertainly it contains the highest writing I have done. Certainly, I know of no play like \u2018Lazarus\u2019 at all, and I know of no one who can play \u2018Lazarus\u2019 at all – the lead, I mean. Who can we get to laugh as one would laugh who had completely lost, even from the depths of the unconscious, all traces of the Fear of Death?\u201d [1]<\/p>\n
Think about it. Even in this atheist, there was an understanding of the power of Lazarus being raised from dead. Even though he rejected Christ, O\u2019Neill understood the central message of this story.<\/p>\n
Death had been defeated. Christ has offered us the promise of life and the hope of resurrection. It was an atheist who wrote Lazarus\u2019 defiant cry: \u201cYou cannot hold me in fear – death is dead!\u201d<\/p>\n
The sad thing is, even as powerful a statement as that didn\u2019t sway O\u2019Neill from his atheism. He was \u201calmost persuaded\u201d of the promises of Christ. But almost wasn\u2019t enough. Eugene O\u2019Neill went to his grave without ever laying hold of the promise that Jesus offered, the promise of life from the dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost\u201d persuaded is not enough.<\/p>\n
As the old invitation hymns says:<\/p>\n
\u2018Almost\u2019 cannot avail;
\n \u2018Almost\u2019 is but to fail!
\n Sad, sad, that bitter wail –
\n \u2018Almost,\u2019 but lost!<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
1. http:\/\/www.eoneill.com\/library\/contour\/triumvirate2\/lazarus.htm<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #12789]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pastor Jeff Strite heard a great story about Lazarus. It told of a time in Lazarus\u2019 life when he\u2019d grown old. All through his life Lazarus had told and retold the story of his resurrection. The Roman Emperor at that time was the cruel and evil Caligula. He ruled with an iron fist, relying on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1059,3134],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}