03292023 – John 11. 1-45
You know me, I love to do research. I have an inquiring mind. I love finding stuff.
Her heart had stopped beating and she was no longer breathing.
Janina Kolkiewicz was declared dead. At 91 years old, she had lived a long life.
But she “was not about” to stop living it.
Eleven hours later, she awoke in the hospital mortuary with a craving for tea and pancakes. 11 hours later.
As inconceivable as it sounds, Kolkiewicz is just one of many people said to have “risen from the dead.”
In 2001, a 66-year-old man experienced cardiac arrest while undergoing surgery for an abdominal aneurysm.
After 17 minutes of resuscitation efforts – incorporating CPR, defibrillation, and medication – the man’s vital signs failed to return, and he was pronounced dead.
Ten minutes later, his surgeon felt a pulse.
He was indeed alive.
The man’s operation continued, with a successful outcome.
In 2014, a 78-year-old man from Mississippi was declared dead after a hospice nurse found him with no pulse.
The NEXT DAY, (You did hear that, right, the NEXT DAY) he woke up in a body bag at the morgue.
These are “undoubtedly extraordinary stories” that sound more suited to a horror movie, but there is a real-world name for such cases: the “Lazarus syndrome.”
“The Lazarus phenomenon,” or Lazarus syndrome, is defined as “a delayed return of spontaneous circulation” (ROSC) after CPR has ceased.
In other words, patients who are pronounced dead after cardiac arrest “experience an impromptu return of cardiac activity.”
The syndrome is named after Lazarus of Bethany, who – according to the Early Christian Writings – was brought back to life by Jesus 4 days after his death.
Since 1982, when “the Lazarus phenomenon” was first described in the MEDICAL LITERATURE, there have been at least 38 reported cases.
According to a 2007 report in around “82 percent of Lazarus syndrome cases to date,” the return of spontaneous circulation occurred within 10 minutes of CPR being stopped, and around 45 percent of patients experienced “good neurological recovery.”
But while the low number of report cases might highlight “the RARITY of Lazarus syndrome,” scientists believe that it is “much more common” than studies suggest.
“The Lazarus phenomenon is a GROSSLY UNDERREPORTED event,” stated a 2016 report.
“The reason for these can be attributed to the fact that “medico-legal issues” are brought to light – in cases which are PRONOUNCED DEAD – which later turn out to HAVE BEEN ALIVE,” he explains.
So, unfortunately for us, the story in the gospel of John is LOST on a great many people.
Some people DO NOT believe in an AFTERLIFE at all, and, among those who do, precious few believe it’s possible for someone to “come back to life” after they’ve been dead for THREE WHOLE DAYS.
And perhaps a bigger, more basic question might be, WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO COME BACK TO LIFE?
“Leave the dead REST IN PEACE.”
DO NOT DISTURB
JUST LEAVE THEM ALONE!
And why, would anyone WANT TO DIE twice…isn’t ONCE enough?
We have become CRITICAL, SKEPTICAL, DUBIOUS, DOUBTFUL, and QUESTIONING.
The gospel seems to be A STRETCH, at best…at least for some…
Yeah, there is a part of us that WANTS to believe that ALL THINGS are possible…BUT
You will usually find a BUT, somewhere DEEP within us…
A but hiding under somewhere and waiting to surface…
What this gospel narrative can speak to, though, is the truth that IN THIS STORY: LOVE is stronger than HATE, JUSTICE can triumph over INJUSTICE, and when things look their DARKEST, and BLEAKEST, the DAWN may be just around the next corner or over the next horizon.
This is an “ancient story of HOPE.” It always has been.
It does contain “Oriental Exaggeration” in it…
And, in spite of that we still LONG for it to be TRUE…as did those who came before us.
We LONG to be THIS HOPEFUL.
We WANT to believe – with everything that is in us.
We sorely WANT this story to be TRUE, to HAVE HAPPENED, EXACTLY AS WRITTEN. Sometimes we really truly are “literalists at heart.”
Do not change a WORD or a THOUGHT, in it.
My God can do anything.
Jesus through God could do anything.
We still WANT, NEED, and HOPE, that our best inclinations as human beings can WIN OVER our worst INCLINATIONS.
Keep hoping. Never give up.
Don’t abandon the ship. And never cry uncle or wolf.
Our present world IS NOT fixed in stone.
Things can change.
Things can be altered. Things are not always as they seem.
Life in all its ugliness can give way to something MORE BEAUTIFUL.
So the next time someone dies and passes away, the very next question just might be, ARE YOU SURE?
Amen.