LAZARUS SATURDAY We commemorated the raising of Lazarus with Divine Liturgy on Saturday morning On the Saturday before Holy Week, the Orthodox Church commemorates a major feast of the year, the miracle of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when he raised Lazarus from the dead after he had lain in the grave four days. Here, at the end of Great Lent and the forty days of fasting and penitence, the Church combines this celebration with that of Palm Sunday. In triumph and joy the Church bears witness to the power of Christ over death and exalts Him as King before entering the most solemn week of the year, one that leads the faithful in remembrance of His suffering and death and concludes with the great and glorious Feast of Pascha. q h r Visible triumphs are few in the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ. He preached a kingdom “not of this world.” At His nativity in the flesh there was “no room at the inn.” For nearly thirty years, while He grew “in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52), He lived in obscurity as “the son of Mary.” When He appeared from Nazareth to begin His public ministry, one of the first to hear of Him asked: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John I :46). In the end He was crucified between two thieves and laid to rest in the tomb of another man. Two brief days stand out as sharp exceptions to the above—days of clearly observable triumph. These days are known in the Church today as Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. Together they form a unified liturgical cycle which serves as the passage from the forty days of Great Lent to Holy Week. They are the unique and paradoxical days before the Lord’s Passion. They are days of visible, earthly triumph, of resurrectional and messianic joy in which Christ Himself is a deliberate and active participant. At the same time they are days which point beyond themselves to an ultimate victory and final kingship which Christ will attain not by raising one dead man or entering a particular city, but by His own imminent suffering, death and resurrection. q h r O Christ God, when Thou didst raise Lazarus from the dead, before Thy Passion, Thou didst confirm the universal resurrection. Wherefore, we, like children, carry the insignia of triumph and victory, and cry to Thee, O Vanquisher of death: Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He Who cometh in the Name of the Lord. (APOLYTIKION OF LAZARUS SATURDAY) q h r THE STORY OF THE RAISING OF LAZARUS The story of the raising of Lazarus from good for him to sleep if he was ill. Jesus, the dead by Jesus Christ is found in the however, was referring to the death of Gospel of John 11:1-45. Lazarus Lazarus, and thus told the disciples becomes ill, and his sisters, Mary and directly that Lazarus was dead (vv. 11- Martha send a message to Jesus stating, 14). “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” In When Jesus arrived at Bethany, Lazarus response to the message, Jesus says, had already been in the tomb four days. “This illness does not Since Bethany was near lead to death; rather it is Jerusalem, many of the Jews for God’s glory, so that had come to console Mary the Son of God may be and Martha. When Martha glorified through it” (vv. heard that Jesus was 1-4). approaching she went to Jesus did not meet Him and said to Him, immediately go to “Lord, if you had been here, Bethany, the town my brother would not have where Lazarus lived died. But even now I know with his sisters. Instead that God will give you He remained in the whatever you ask of Him.” place where He was Jesus told her that her staying for two more brother will rise again. days. After this time, He Martha said that she knew told his disciples that he would rise again in the they were returning to Judea. The resurrection on the last day. Jesus disciples immediately expressed their replied, “I am the resurrection and the concern, stating that the Jews there had life. Those who believe in me, even recently tried to stone Him (John 10:31). though they die, will live, and everyone Jesus replied to His disciples, “Are there who lives and believes in me will never not twelve hours of daylight? Those die.” Jesus asked Martha if she believed who walk during the day do not this. She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I stumble, because they see the light of believe that you are the Messiah, the this world. But those who walk at night Son of God, the one coming into the stumble, because the light is not in world” (vv. 17-27). them” (vv. 5-10). Martha returned to tell Mary that Jesus After He said this, Jesus told his had come and was asking for her. Mary disciples that Lazarus had fallen asleep went to meet Him, and she was and that He was going there to wake followed by those who were consoling him. The disciples wondered why He her. The mourners followed her would go to wake Lazarus, since it was thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When she came to Jesus, Jesus had done. In response the she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if Pharisees and chief priests met and you had been here, my brother would considered how they might arrest Him not have died.” Jesus saw her weeping and put Him to death (v. 45ff). and those who were with her, and He This miracle is performed by Christ as a was deeply moved. He asked to be taken reassurance to His disciples before the to the tomb of Lazarus. As Jesus wept coming Passion: they are to understand for Lazarus the Jews said, “See how He that, though He suffers and dies, yet He loved him.” Others wondered that if is Lord and Victor over death. The Jesus could open the eyes of the blind, resurrection of Lazarus is He certainly could have a prophecy in the form of kept Lazarus from an action. It foreshadows dying (vv. 28-37). Christs own Resurrection Jesus came to the tomb eight days later, and at the and asked that the same time it anticipates stone that covered the the resurrection of all the door be taken away. righteous on the Last Day: Martha remarked that Lazarus is “the saving Lazarus had now been first-As the liturgical texts in the tomb for four emphasize, the miracle at days and that there Bethany reveals the two would be a stench. natures of Christ the Jesus replied, “Did I God-man. Christ asks not tell you that if you where Lazarus is laid and believed, you would see weeps for him, and so He the glory of God?” The shows the fullness of His stone was taken away, manhood, involving as it and Jesus looked toward heaven and does human ignorance and genuine grief said, “Father, I thank you for having for a beloved friend. Then, disclosing heard me, but I have said this for the the fullness of His divine power, Christ sake of the crowd standing here, so that raises Lazarus from the dead, even they may believe that you sent me.” though his corpse has already begun to When He had said this, He called out decompose and stink. This double with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” fullness of the Lord’s divinity and His Lazarus walked out of the tomb, bound humanity is to be kept in view with the strips of burial cloth, and Jesus throughout Holy Week, and above all said, “Unbind him, and let him go” (vv. on Good Friday. On the Cross we see a 38-44). genuine human agony, both physical As a result of this miracle, many of the and mental, but we see more than this: Jews that were present believed in Jesus. we see not only suffering man but Others went and told the Pharisees what suffering God. q h r THE SYNAXARION For Lazarus Saturday On this day in the Holy Orthodox Church, the Saturday before Palm Sunday, we celebrate the Raising of holy and righteous Lazarus of four-days, a friend of Christ. Lazarus was beloved of Jesus, as also were his two sisters, Martha and Mary, who were frequent hosts of Jesus, and who served Him much, as evidenced in the Holy Gospels. They lived in the town of Bethany of Judea, just two miles away from Jerusalem. Our Savior summoned His Disciples to go with Him to wake Lazarus from the deep sleep of death. Jesus reached Bethany four days after Lazarus died and was buried. He was aware of the approaching death of Lazarus but deliberately delayed His coming, saying to His disciples at the news of His friend’s death: “For your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe” (John 11:14). After comforting Martha and Mary, and mourning and weeping at the death of His friend (John 11:35), Jesus went to the tomb and commanded Lazarus to “come forth.” Lazarus emerged, wrapped in grave clothes. Through all of this, our Savior shows His humanity and His divinity in that He will raise the dead as He will raise Himself in the coming days, thus confirming the “universal resurrection.” Ancient accounts relate that Lazarus was 30 years old when Jesus raised him, and he lived another 30 years and died in Cyprus in the year 63.