Creating the Lazarus Moment

Recently, I’ve been somewhat obsessed with this song:

Without saying the name in the lyrics, it’s the story of Lazarus, the man Christ raised from the dead. The Bible story comes from the book of John, something I recently read through and a book that Gina went through as part of an organized Bible study. 

For those unfamiliar: John 11:1-44 

Jarrett’s condensed summary: Lazarus gets sick. Mary and Martha send word to Jesus. He waits where he is two days. Lazarus dies. Jesus goes to Judea and comforts Mary and Martha then raises Lazarus from the dead. 

So, when I listen to this song, I try to imagine Lazarus in those final days, and here’s what I picture. He knows he’s sick. He knows that he’s probably not going to make it. He and his sisters send for Jesus. Lazarus believes that Jesus is the promised messiah, so he’s probably comfortable with his eternity. Still, like most of us, he probably wants a little more time. He’s obviously close to his family. We don’t know how old he is. We know that his sisters are roughly the same age as Jesus, so he’s not old. He’s probably OK with dying, but not ready to do it yet. So he’s hoping for his miracle. But as he doesn’t hear from Jesus and knows that things are looking more and more grim, he says to himself, “It’s OK. I know what’s next for me.” And then he dies. 

Here’s where the song comes in. It’s written from Lazarus’s point of view, and he starts saying “You came! I knew that you would come!” (I’m an advocate for proper exclamation point usage, and they feel totally appropriate here.) This is a man who thought he was dead. He thought he was destined for Heaven. Instead, he’s up and walking out of a tomb, alive again.

He was literally at his lowest point, but now he’s not. He’s experienced a literal 180 degree change.

Like a lot of things, this gets me thinking about my fiction and starts me asking questions about my writing.

Are you giving the characters in your story that kind of 180 degree change? Are you allowing them to hit the bottom so they can then rise again? Are you putting their backs flat to the wall, trapping them in a corner, giving them long odds (or no odds at all)?

Characters need that kind of change so they can grow as people. Readers need that kind of virtual hopelessness so they have a reason to root for the character. 

Now, you can’t let your characters live in a perpetual state of back-to-the-wall. Their lives can’t be all dark. No one wants to spend all of their reading time with characters who are constantly being thrown to the ground and stepped upon.

In the same way, though, they don’t want to read about people who have no real victory. If someone wins all the time, or is dealt a hand that’s all aces you don’t have a story. Stories are about change--changes in situations, yes, but most of us read because we want to see changes in characters. We want to see growth in the fictional people we care about. That’s story, and if we don’t put our characters in situations where they can learn and grow then we don’t have a tale to tell.

Are you creating that Lazarus Moment for your characters? Are you knocking them down so they can have their miracle and get back up again?