Lazarus Saturday
Read
Hebrews 12:28-13:8; John 11:1-45
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Today we celebrate and mark the greatest miracle Our Lord worked during His ministry in this world: the raising of Lazarus. Of course, there are other examples throughout the Gospel of similar miracles that Our Lord worked, including His raising of the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7) and the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5). Clearly Our Lord had the power as God Incarnate to raise the dead to life, so then why is the raising of Lazarus different? Lazarus’ raising by Christ was Our Lord’s greatest miracle for three main reasons. Firstly, we have the physical fact that unlike Jairus’ daughter and the son of the widow of Nain, Lazarus was dead and buried -he had been embalmed and had been in the tomb for four days and had begun to stink. Secondly, this miracle was worked by Our Lord in a very public manner. As Bethany is very close to Jerusalem and Jews from all around were travelling to Jerusalem, like Jesus and His disciples, to celebrate the Passover they were there and witnessed Lazarus’ raising: “many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.” Finally, in the sequence of events that led to Our Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, the raising of Lazarus has a clear purpose which Our Lord Himself states: “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” The resurrection of Lazarus foreshadows the general resurrection of the dead that we confess as Christians and that is brought about through Our Lord’s own Resurrection from the dead.
In the verses immediately following this Gospel passage it is recorded that after this greatest of miracles many of the Jews who were there and saw what Christ did believed in Him, but that others went and told the Pharisees what had happened. The Pharisees and the chief priests were fearful of what Christ had done and that it might lead many to Him and so they began to further their plot to have him put to death. May we stand with those who believe and confess with confidence the resurrection of the dead. Let us reject those who could not accept Our Lord’s mercy shown to Lazarus and not be fearful of Christ and what He might lead us away from: our security, our material comforts, our confidence in our own intellect, our comfortable sins. As Pope Benedict XVI said:
If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom?…No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide.
Yes, we must enter the doors of life that Christ opens for us as he opened the tomb of Lazarus and granted Him life. But to do so we must go with Him. We must follow Him through the gates of Jerusalem as He rides on the foal of a donkey. We must be there with Him during His agony in the garden and at His scourging. We must be with Him as He mounts His Cross and at His death. For only then can we rise with Him on the third day.