The Lazarus Factor

“He loved them, so he stayed where he was two more days.” That sentence from John 11, verse 6, is the hinge of Steven Furtick’s message on what he calls the Lazarus factor. The episode works through the familiar biblical story of Lazarus’s death and resurrection, but Furtick’s argument is not about the miracle itself. It is about the waiting, the silence, and the disappointment that precedes it—and what that reveals about the nature of faith.

The central tension: love versus comfort

Furtick’s core observation is that humans and God define love differently. “We often equate love with comfort,” he says, “while God equates love with trust.” The story of Lazarus is a case study in this mismatch. Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. The text is explicit about that. Yet when Lazarus fell gravely ill and the sisters sent an urgent message—“Lord, the one you love is sick”—Jesus deliberately delayed his arrival by two days. By the time he reached Bethany, Lazarus had been dead and buried for four days.