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| “The Palm Bearers,” mural of the Church of the Zoodochos Pege, Paiania, 1946. |
By Photios Kontoglou
Christ raised Lazarus before He was crucified, so that the Jews might believe in His power and so that the faith of His disciples might be strengthened, just as earlier He had been transfigured on Mount Tabor for the same reason, as the troparion says: “On the mountain You were transfigured, and as much as Your disciples could bear, they beheld Your glory, Christ God, so that when they should see You crucified, they might understand that the Passion was voluntary, and might proclaim to the world that You are truly the radiance of the Father.”
But neither the Transfiguration nor the Resurrection of Lazarus were able to strengthen the disciples and the world in faith. Human nature is weak and inclines toward unbelief, because unbelief is a weakness of the soul. The faith in Christ was established, through the centuries, after many miracles that were done in His name and from supernatural manifestations that silenced the unbelievers. But even so, most people remained in unbelief.
The Evangelist John writes in detail in his Gospel about the resurrection of Lazarus, because he was with Christ, just as the other disciples were also with Him.
He writes, therefore, that Christ had left Jerusalem and had gone beyond the Jordan River, because the Hebrews wanted to seize Him and kill Him. So He went and was staying in the place where, at another time, John the Forerunner used to baptize the people.
Christ had a friend from Bethany, called Lazarus, whom Christ loved and whose house He visited, and Martha and Mary were his sisters. And all three were unmarried. Lazarus, then, became seriously ill, and his sisters sent a man to Christ to tell Him that His beloved Lazarus was gravely sick. When the Lord heard what the messenger said to Him, He said: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of Man may be glorified through it.”
Even though Christ loved Lazarus, as He also loved his sisters, who were all three God-fearing, nevertheless He did not hurry to go to Bethany, but remained where He was.
Suddenly, He says to His disciples: “Let us go back to Judea.” And they asked Him: “Teacher, the Jews recently were seeking to stone You, and again You want to go there?” The Lord answered them: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, and I go to awaken him.” Then His disciples said to Him: “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover,” because they thought that Lazarus had fallen asleep, and not that he had died, as Christ meant. Then He told them plainly: “Lazarus has died, and I am glad for your sake, that I was not there to heal him from his sickness, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Then Thomas, called the Twin, said to the other disciples: “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” And they set out on the road to Bethany, which was near Jerusalem.
When they arrived there, they found Lazarus dead and buried for four days. His house was full of people, because many Jews had come to console Martha and Mary.
When Martha heard that Christ was coming, she ran to meet Him, while Mary was sitting in the house, and Martha said to Christ: “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.” Christ says to her: “Your brother will rise.” Martha says to Him: “I know that he will rise in the resurrection of the dead, on the last day.” Christ says to her: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, even if he dies, will live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Martha answers Him: “Yes, Lord, I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world to save it.” And after she said these words, she ran and called her sister Mary secretly and said to her: “The Teacher has come and is calling you.” She, as soon as she heard it, rose quickly and ran to meet Him, because Christ had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met Him. Then the Jews who were in the house of Lazarus and were consoling Mary, when they saw her rising quickly and going out, followed her, saying that she was going to the tomb of her brother to weep.
Mary, then, when she came where Christ was, as soon as she saw Him, fell at His feet and said to Him: “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” When He saw her weeping, and the others who came with her weeping, He was moved with grief and troubled, and asked: “Where have you laid him?” They say to Him: “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. Then the Jews were saying: “See how He loved him!” And some of them said: “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have made it so that Lazarus also would not die?” Then Christ, again deeply moved, went to the tomb, which was a cave, closed with a stone. Christ says: “Take away the stone.” Martha says to Him: “Lord, he will smell, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus says to her: “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
So they removed the stone from the tomb where the dead man was. And Christ lifted up His eyes and said: “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this for the sake of the crowd standing around, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” And having said these things, He cried out with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out of the tomb, bound hand and foot with strips of cloth, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Christ says to the people: “Unbind him and let him go home.”
With these simple and moving words the Evangelist John writes about the dreadful resurrection of Lazarus, as if he were narrating something ordinary. Further on he writes that many Jews, seeing this great miracle, believed in Christ. But most remained in unbelief, and especially the chief priests, who decided to kill both Lazarus and Christ, because many people were going to Bethany to see the one who had been raised from the dead and Christ, who went to Lazarus’ house six days before His own Resurrection and dined with some friends of the household, at which table sat Lazarus also.
Our Church celebrated the Raising of Lazarus yesterday, Saturday, and today celebrates Palm Sunday, that is, the fact that the Lord entered Jerusalem seated on a donkey, and the people received Him with palm branches. For this reason, the holy hymnographers composed hymns and certain troparia that combine these two feasts together.
One of the most compunctionate is the Apolytikion of the Palms, which says: “Confirming the common resurrection before Your Passion, You raised Lazarus from the dead, O Christ God. Therefore we also, like the children, bearing the symbols of victory, cry out to You, the Conqueror of death: Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Translation: “Wanting to assure us that all will rise at the Second Coming, You raised Lazarus from the dead, O Christ God. Therefore we also, as the children who welcomed You in Jerusalem did, carry the palm branches as symbols of victory over death, and cry out to You, who are the conqueror of death: Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Another such troparion is this: “Prefiguring for us Your venerable Resurrection, by Your command You raised the lifeless Lazarus, Your friend, from the tomb, who was four days dead and already decaying, O Good One. For this reason You mounted symbolically upon a colt, as if being borne upon a chariot, foreshadowing the nations, O Savior. Therefore also beloved Israel offers You praise from the mouths of nursing infants and innocent children, seeing You, O Christ, entering the holy City six days before the Passover.”
Here is also a third troparion translated: “With tears You secretly water Your friend Lazarus, O Christ, and You raise him up, he who lay dead. And as a lover of mankind, You suffered for him. And the children, when they learned that You were going to Jerusalem, came out today holding palm branches in their hands and crying ‘Hosanna.’ Blessed are You, for You came into the world to save it.”
O Lord Jesus Christ, You who wept for Your friend Lazarus, cause tears to spring forth from our dried-up eyes, so that we may weep for the terrible confusion that torments the world today and makes it stagger like a drunk man, not knowing where it is going and not feeling whether it is alive or dead. Raise it up, as You raised Lazarus. You who are the Giver of Life, Amen.
Source: From the book “Christ Is Risen: The Trial of Reason,” Armós Publications, Athens, 2001. Translation by John Sanidopoulos.