Lazarus Saturday
Read
Hebrews 12:28-13:8; John 11:1-45
This is a lovely feast, and a bit of a paradox: Matins has several characteristics of a Sunday service. The long, dramatic Gospel lesson (John 11:1-45) at the Divine Liturgy tells of Christ calling Lazarus out of the tomb. The liturgical poetry enjoys playing on the two natures of Christ as defined by the Council of Chalcedon in 451. As a man, Christ asked where Lazarus was laid; as God he already knew. As a man, Christ weeps and prays at the tomb of Lazarus, his friend; as God, Christ calls Lazarus out of the tomb, back to life. Christ wished to reveal both His divinity and His humanity. To show us His humanity He walked, He spoke, He wept. To show us His divinity He raised Lazarus from the dead.
But there is more to it than that. This was not the only time that Jesus Christ raised someone from the dead. Jesus raised the daughter of the official; Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain; Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus; and there were probably other occasions not mentioned
in the Gospels. The raising of Lazarus, however, is different. The other times Jesus raised someone from the dead out of compassion for the family. This time, Jesus deliberately chose to raise Lazarus in order to reveal the glory of God, so that the apostles and all the people might believe. The raising of Lazarus is thus a direct challenge to the power of death itself, a direct challenge to the devil. The raising of Lazarus is an assurance of the general resurrection.
Christ weeping over the grave, therefore, is more than just the reaction of the Lord in His human nature to the death of a friend. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to redeem the whole human race. The ultimate sign of the Fall is death. In confronting the death of this one friend, Jesus Christ confronted the abyss of death which the Fall has brought upon humanity.
Jesus looks for His friend, and finds his friend is dead. Jesus looks for Paradise, and finds a cemetery. Jesus looks for the Creation that God called “good,” and finds that “it stinks.” No wonder “Jesus wept!” All of creation had turned into a cosmic graveyard! Yes, His tears were human; pure spirits do not weep tears. But His tears were also divine; He wept for the dead goodness of Creation, which He came to restore. The tears of Jesus express the infinite love of Almighty God for His people, love which brought us the Incarnation; love which was to bring Jesus into the tomb, into Hell itself, to save us.
We shall return to this theme as we proceed with Holy Week.
Lazarus Saturday, as I said, is a joyful day. While we still keep some aspects of the Lenten abstinence this is a “joyous fast!”
(From Our Paschal Pilgrimage by Bishop Basil Losten)