He finished it in the early weeks of 2020 and had just begun talks with various publishers about his project. His original manuscript was entitled, Jesus in the Waiting Room. In 2019, I decided to finally make that dream become a reality.” “Over the years several mentors and friends encouraged me to write a book. “I’ve had the notion of writing a book on my mind for years,” explained Sager. When he was a student at Abilene Christian University in the mid 1980s, He was encouraged by one of his professors to “one day publish a book.” Sager said this book project has been more than 30 years in the making. Through this story we journey through the great issues of our time as they encounter devastating illness, unanswered prayer, the abandonment of God, senseless suffering, cruel death, spiritual isolation, and deep disappointment.”

“Yet upon his late arrival, Jesus announced the glory of God had been revealed in the midst of the isolation, the distancing, and even death. Jesus in Isolation invites us to Bethany to witness the illness of Jesus’s best friend, the spiritual isolation of both Jesus and Lazarus’s sisters (Martha and Mary), and Lazarus’s cruel and untimely death from an unseen illness, as well as Jesus’s unexplained absence as he distanced from his friends and missed the funeral,” said Sager. “In this world of illness and isolation, distancing and death, making sense of suffering has never been of more critical importance. In Jesus in Isolation, Sager revisits the New Testament story of Lazarus and uses the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic to view it through a modern-day lens addressing issues such as illness, suffering, isolation and disappointment. Jesus in Isolation: Lazarus, Viruses and Us was released in March and is published by WIPF & Stock. Lipscomb University’s Scott Sager, vice president for church services, has released his first book.

Jesus and lazarus