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THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS
The Miracle and the Tradition
By Photios Kontoglou
The Miracle and the Tradition
By Photios Kontoglou
Without simplicity of mind and without a humble heart, a person will never truly taste anything — neither peace nor joy, nor light nor love; in a word, he will not truly taste even life. The simple eye makes the whole body full of light.
The innocence and simplicity found in the Gospel, while for the unbeliever are the cause of his unbelief, for the believer are precisely the cause of his faith. The cunning and complicated want cunning and complicated things, so that their arrogant heart may be satisfied. The religion of humility was spoken with humble words.
Yet these humble words (pay attention), these humble and unadorned words, are filled with a certain active power that pierces us to the core — the power that only truth has. Whatever man constructs artificially, with his false art, even if he is the strongest orator or poet, are hollow words “of empty deceit,” for the one who wants to be nourished by spirit and truth, and not by shadows and illusions, “deceptions of magical art,” according to Solomon.
O man, who has been stuffed with false words. Bow your head and worship, and seek nothing at all. And listen carefully to the Evangelist John as he narrates the raising of Lazarus:
“When Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had already been four days in the tomb. And Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him. But Mary was sitting in the house. Then Martha said to Jesus: '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.' Jesus says to her: 'Your brother will rise.' Martha says to Him: 'I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.' Jesus said 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?'”
What fearful things! Man, with all his wisdom, stands like a nursing infant before this dreadful conversation, which nevertheless takes place calmly and in a low voice. So then, you also, Christian — “do you believe this”? Here cleverness has no value, nor the quick twists of the mind and other inventions that man has devised to escape. Here there is need for pure and straightforward faith: “Do you believe this?”
“So they lifted the stone from the place where the dead man lay. And Jesus lifted His eyes upward and said: 'Father, I thank You that You have heard Me; and 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 when He had said this, He cried out with a loud voice: 'Lazarus, come out.' And the dead man came out, bound hand and foot with burial cloths, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus says to them: 'Unbind him and let him go.'”
Our Orthodox iconography is the painting that is enlivened by the immortality of faith; for this reason it has that sanctified sweetness. In a certain village I painted in the church, among other things, the “Raising of Lazarus,” and I wrote the following words in a manuscript so that those who come after might find them:
The stature of Christ has that simple majesty of divine authority; His gaze is radiant, it comes forth with power; His right hand is as if giving a command to death, while His left holds the scroll. Yet the form of the Lord is modest, and His face sorrowful, because according to the Gospel “He groaned in spirit and troubled Himself and wept.” The rocks are heavy and dark, because of the heaviness and mournfulness of the subject. And the ravine is narrow and steep, so as to give the viewer a sense of fear from the echo produced by the stones struck by the great voice of the Lord, when He cried out: “Lazarus, come out!”
Six days before Pascha, Jesus went again to Bethany, and they made Him a supper in their house, Mary and Martha. And Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with Him… “And Lazarus was one of those who sat at table with Him.”
The Evangelist John wrote that the Jews wanted to kill Lazarus. And it is said that he left and went to Cyprus, and the Apostles ordained him Bishop of Kition. He lived thirty more years after his resurrection. And he never laughed again until he died a second time. Nor did he tell anyone anything about what he saw in the other world.
Source: From an article by Photios Kontoglou in Eleftheria, April 18, 1948. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.