4. Isaiah brings the news to Bethany in person, not the parable of Lazarus, but something stranger still. It sounds absurd, and Isaiah doesn’t expect anyone to believe it, but in Galilee Jesus has supposedly fed five thousand people with some bread and a couple of fish. By now, for Lazarus, the pattern is established. Jesus performs a miracle, Lazarus moves closer to death. Malarial sporozoites take advantage of the feeding of the five thousand, the fourth sign as recorded in the Gospel of John. They unclench from their long wait and invade the liver, where they breed into merozoites that rupture their host cells and escape to cause havoc in the bloodstream. Lazarus has a recurrent fever, and each wave of nausea corresponds to a new cycle of parasites breaking free. The smallpox pustules, after bursting, deflate and dry up, forming a crust of scabs. Lazarus develops complications. The smallpox becomes haemorrhagic, and in places the internal bleeding makes his skin look charred, as if he’s been struck by lightning.
