Bowie’s “Lazarus”

Incredibly interesting fact: the last single David Bowie ever released while alive was entitled Lazarus in December of 2015 (a month before he died of liver cancer).  He filmed the video after he had found out that his cancer was terminal and his doctors recommended stopping treatment.  The video was released three days before he died.  It is quintessentially Bowie—a bit strange and uncomfortable, but always profound.  He captures the feel of an anguished soul crying out for freedom, for resurrection, knowing that he would soon die.  We are all trying to run from our great enemy of death in one way or another, but we know that we will never be able to outrun it.  We are living in a time when we have all had to come to grips with our mortality.  That may seem like bad news, but as one of my favorite theologians, Dr. Steven Paulson, has said it’s when you realize that you are as good as dead in your sin that you are Jesus’ cup of tea because he is the one that raises the dead. 

Here are Jesus’ promises for David Bowie and for you and me: “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles….The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:6,18).  “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4,5).

Watch Lazarus here:

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