History in stories. Jesus raises Lazarus

Man is the crown of creation. Even the creation of a social hierarchy does not refute this truth. Man always remains the crown of creation, regardless of his position in society, his physical, financial and mental capabilities. Being a creation of God, man has the opportunity to become like his Creator, which is limited only by the Will of the Lord God.

However, it is known from Holy Scripture that the higher a person climbs the social ladder, the more difficult it is for him to get through it to Heaven. The stairs are wrong. But it clearly demonstrates the relativity of the concepts of “top” and “bottom” in the vast Universe.

In order for a person to understand the need to use another path, another ladder (or “Ladder”) for Salvation, he needs to believe that he is God’s creation, that he has a Father in Heaven who does not leave him with his attention even for a second. moment and who is always ready to help find the right Path to his father’s house. As a navigator, yes.

And this is how a person is designed that in order to start moving in the right direction, he needs constant confirmation that he must move and that the direction is chosen correctly.

Miracle of life

Strange as it may seem, people trust most of all not in logic, not in scientific explanations, not in experience, not in eyewitness accounts, but in miracles! A miracle that happens to him, or to someone before his eyes.

During his earthly life, Jesus Christ performed many miracles so that people would follow him. He forbade talking about some of them even to close people, because not everyone is ready to convey to others the essence of what happened, not everyone can believe them without considering him out of his mind.

Here I would like to recall the place in the Bible where it talks about the resurrection of Lazarus.

Pay attention to the meaning of the word in Russian. Two words - “resurrection” and “resurrection”, which seem to mean the same thing, tell us about different events. In the first case (resurrection) we are talking about an action on someone. The second (resurrection) is about the ability of someone to rise from their deathbed.

None of us, born wives, perceive life as a miracle, because it is a given, it is like a gift for our birthday. This miracle happens to us every day. And only events on the verge of life and death remind us of the one who gave us life. How often do we think about how we use this gift?

Or maybe this is not a gift at all, but a miracle given on loan? We need this life, we need it as a tool, like a jack, like a stepladder, in order to be able to climb as high as possible on the spiritual “ladder”. In order to save your Soul and in order to help save those who are close to us.

Lazarus, friend of Christ

It was in Bethany, not far from Jerusalem. Lazarus, a friend of Christ, fell ill and died a natural death. The fourth day has passed since his death. His relatives had already buried him according to custom, in a cave.

Knowing about his friend's death, Jesus headed to Bethany. On the way to Lazarus's house, he met Martha, who said that if Jesus had been here, his friend would not have died. Could Jesus not have known about this? Martha seemed to doubt the omnipresence of Jesus God. But the Lord consoled her, saying that her brother would rise again. But even after these words, Martha continued to doubt. She believed that Jesus reminded her of the general Resurrection of the dead. And the Lord forgave her for this lack of faith, she was heartbroken and had lost her beloved brother.

Where Christ appeared, people certainly flocked in huge numbers. And now a whole crowd led by bishops ran to the place where Martha and Jesus met. They all followed Christ to the burial place of Lazarus, but only to laugh at the attempt to resurrect a dead man whom they all knew, whom they themselves buried in a cave. They themselves consoled his sisters at the funeral dinner yesterday. And here they are at the tomb of Lazarus. This is how the episode is described in the Bible (John 11:38-45):

“It was a cave, and a stone lay on it. Jesus says: take away the stone. The sister of the deceased, Martha, said to Him: Lord! already stinks; for he has been in the tomb for four days. Jesus says to her: Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? So they took away the stone [from the cave] where the dead man lay. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said: Father! I thank You that You heard Me. I knew that You would always hear Me; but I said [this] for the people standing here, so that they might believe that You sent Me. Having said this, He cried out with a loud voice: Lazarus! get out. And the dead man came out, entwined on his hands and feet with burial cloths, and his face was tied with a scarf. Jesus says to them: Untie him, let him go. Then many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus had done believed in Him.”

Jesus loved his friend very much, and could have made sure that he did not die at all. But then no one would have thought that Lazarus was alive by the Will of the Lord. People would think that Lazarus simply got well. Coped with the disease. And therefore Jesus allowed death to devour his beloved friend in order to show that the Lord commands death too.

No one thinks that every morning he wakes up according to the Will of God, that his life continues day after day only because it is the Will of God.

After the miraculous resurrection of Lazarus, Christ headed to Jerusalem, but not in order to ascend to the throne and become king of the Jews with the help of the crowd that followed him, who witnessed the miracle, but in order to complete his way of the cross and die on the cross for the sins of the world and show people your Resurrection as a victory over death.

Life after death

The miracle of resurrecting a dead man took place. There has never been a miracle like this! People recognized the resurrection of Lazarus; no one could doubt that he was dead. Everyone knew Lazarus, and no one dared to slander this miracle, just as they slandered the healing of the man born blind, saying: “It’s him. It's not him. Like him” (John 9:9)4.

It was precisely this unconditionality of this miracle that became the reason for the hatred of Lazarus himself on the part of the bishops. Their hatred reached the point that they wanted to kill the resurrected one.

Fleeing persecution, Lazarus leaves his native Bethany and goes to the beautiful, flowering island of Cyprus, which at that time was under the rule of Rome. There he became a bishop in the city of Kition and a tireless preacher of Christianity. He was thirty years old at that time. Having survived the persecution of Christians, Lazarus lived in Cyprus until he was sixty years old and went to the Lord.

Holy places

In Bethany, where the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus took place, the square cave in the rock that served as Lazarus’s tomb is a place of worship for believers around the world. A chapel was erected on this site, and a basilica nearby, then a Benedictine monastery appeared, after its destruction a mosque was built.

Part of the wall of the medieval chapel at the tomb of Lazarus belongs to the Orthodox Church. A Greek temple was built right there, and a little further - the Greek Orthodox monastery of Martha and Mary, dedicated to the meeting of Martha with Christ on the day of the resurrection of Lazarus. The stone on which Christ sat when meeting Martha is now the main shrine of the monastery.

In the 9th century, the Byzantine emperor Leo the Wise ordered the relics of Lazarus to be transferred to Constantinople. And in the city of Kition (now Larnaca) a temple was built in honor of Christ’s friend Lazarus.

We cordially congratulate you on the Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. We wish you a peaceful Senior Week and a joyful meeting of the Bright Resurrection of Christ. God help you!

Father Spiridon (Sammur) joins our congratulations. Father serves in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and cordially congratulates all of you, dear readers of the Elitsa project, on the upcoming Easter of the Lord.

(John 11:1-46)

The resurrection of Lazarus is described in the 11th chapter of Hebrews. from John. According to the chronology carried out by Bishop. Averkiy, it immediately precedes the Bethany supper and the entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, and in fact, according to John. 11:54, after him there was a removal to Ephraim, near the desert, etc. last trip to Jerusalem. Before the resurrection of Lazarus, in the 10th chapter, the removal of the Lord from the Feast of Renewal beyond the Jordan is described due to the desire of the Jews to seize Him. Christ learned about Lazarus' illness from his sisters, who sent him to tell Him about it. Christ’s answer that this illness is not for death, but for the glory of God, clearly foretells the spiritual and dogmatic meaning of the event being described. After the death of Lazarus, the Lord points to Judea, and not to Bethany, as the goal of the last journey, in order to once again emphasize the need for his own suffering. The spiritual meaning of the allegorical speech about 12 hours in a day is to show the brevity of our life and the determination of its highest divine will, and therefore the need to go according to the duties determined for us from above while our life continues. The context of the Gospel clearly indicates that the answer of St. Thomas’s response to Christ’s speech “Let us also go and die with Him” refers to Christ. In verse 27, when Martha, Lazarus' sister, meets Christ, we meet one of several in John. confession of Christ as the Son of God coming into the world. At the same time, in the previous words of Martha we meet the living faith of a part of the Jewish people in the coming general resurrection. Patristic interpretation of the words from verses 33 and 35 “Jesus was grieved in spirit and was indignant; Jesus shed tears” is to explain these actions as a tribute to the human nature of Christ. Ep. Mikhail (Luzin) believes that this grief and indignation of the Lord is explained by the presence of the Jews, who cried insincerely and burned with anger against Him, who was about to perform such a great miracle.... (Bishop Averky, pp. 233-234). Actually, during the resurrection of Lazarus, according to the interpretation of I. Chrysostom, another miracle occurred, consisting in the fact that Lazarus came out of the cave, entwined on his hands and feet with burial shrouds. Ev. describes the reaction of many Jews to the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus: “Then many of the Jews... believed in Him” (11, 45). In the context of performing this miracle, Ev. John tells of the final decision of the Sanhedrin to kill Jesus Christ (47-53). This final decision is connected with the established opinion about Christ, expressed in the words “this man does many miracles. If we leave it like this, then everyone will believe in it, and the Romans will come and take possession of both our place and our people” and in the prophecy of Caiaphas, as a high priest: “It is better for us that one person should die for the people, than that the whole people should perish.” It is with this decision that Christ’s removal to a country near the desert, to a city called Ephraim, is connected (v. 54).

The seal of death [according to Emelyanov]:

Death of Lazarus: “Lazarus, our friend, fell asleep; but I'm going to wake him up. His disciples said: Lord! if he falls asleep, he will recover” (John 11:11-12).

Mortal danger threatening Christ: “The disciples said to Him: Rabbi! How long have the Jews sought to stone You, and You are going there again?” (John 11:8).

Thomas's readiness to die: “Then Thomas, otherwise called the Twin, said to the disciples: Let us go and die with him” (John 11:16).

The connection of the miracle with the glorification of the Son of God in the passion (“Jesus, having heard [this], said: this disease is not for death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (John 11:4), “Jesus says to her: Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:40); cf. 7:39).

Confirmation of the followers of Christ in faith in His Divinity and in the possibility of the Resurrection:

Disciples: “Then Jesus said to them plainly: Lazarus is dead; and I rejoice for you that I was not there, so that you might believe; but let us go to him” (John 11:14-15).

Dialogue with Martha, her confession: “Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life; He who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this? She says to Him: Yes, Lord! I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, coming into the world” (John 25-27). Martha is in the same bewilderment as the Samaritan woman was when Christ spoke to her about worship in spirit and truth (4:25). She admits that Christ is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, but is not able to draw any definite conclusion from this recognition [Chrysostom].

At the end there is a double miracle: the four-day-old dead man rises and walks swaddled. Bound hand and foot with burial shrouds, Lazarus was able to leave the cave himself, after which the Lord commanded to untie him (John 11:44).

Prayer to the Father: “So they took away the stone [from the cave] where the dead man lay. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said: Father! I thank You that You heard Me. I knew that You would always hear Me; but I said [this] for the people standing here, so that they might believe that You sent Me” (John 11:41-42). “Is it possible for God to pray to God?” Knowing that His enemies attribute His miraculous power to the power of demons, the Lord wanted to show with this prayer that He works miracles by virtue of His complete unity with God the Father [Averky].

The deepening division between followers and opponents of Christ under the influence of a miracle:

The assurance of many (John 11:45; 12:11; 12:17-19). “Then many of the Jews... believed in Him” (11:45).

The sign obvious to the opposing Jews (John 11:47) does not assure them, but serves as a reason for the formal pronouncement of the verdict of the Sanhedrin: “From that day they decided to kill Him” (John 11:53)

- “If we leave Him like this, then everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take possession of our place and people” (John 11:48). They recognize the miracles of the Lord as real miracles, but express fear that popular unrest may occur, and the Romans will take advantage of this in order to destroy the shadow of independence of the Jews that they still had. The fatal lie of such a judgment is that they, not recognizing the Lord as the Messiah, since He did not correspond to their perverted ideas about the Messiah, expressed fear that Jesus could become the head of popular indignation and thereby bring disaster to the whole nation [Averky].

- “One of them, a certain Caiaphas, being the high priest that year, said to them: you know nothing, and you will not think that it is better for us that one person should die for the people, than that the whole people should perish. He did not say this on his own, but, being high priest that year, he predicted that Jesus would die for the people, and not only for the people, but so that he might also gather together the scattered children of God” (John 11:49-52). Caiaphas pronounced this definition by inspiration from above, as Balaam once did, and as a result of the influx of the gift of prophecy, which, coming from God, therefore did not contain anything evil and criminal; only the passions that possessed the high priest, interpreting this revelation in their own way, darkened and distorted in his soul the true meaning of the prophecy. God revealed to Caiaphas that the death of Jesus Christ would be saving for everyone, but this revelation neither inspired nor obliged him to strive for the destruction of the Righteous One, despite His innocence and miracles: Caiaphas brought all this from the evil treasure of his heart (Luke. 6, 45), because for a corrupt heart there is nothing easier than to abuse the most holy truths, turn them into an instrument of one’s passions, distort and pervert their meaning with additions and explanations at the whim of the prevailing passion [Barsov].

Troparion of Lazarus Saturday. The resurrection of Lazarus is a prototype of the future resurrection through faith in Christ.

Having learned about the verdict, the Lord left Bethany for Ephraim near the Jericho desert, for the hour of His suffering had not yet come (cf. John 11:54).

Raising Lazarus

The holiday of the Jewish Passover was approaching, and with it came the last days of the life of Jesus Christ on earth. The malice of the Pharisees and the rulers of the Jews reached the extreme; their hearts turned to stone from envy, lust for power and other vices; and they did not want to accept the meek and merciful teaching of Christ. They were waiting for an opportunity to seize the Savior and put him to death. And, behold, now their time drew near; the power of darkness came, and the Lord was given into the hands of men.

At this time, in the village of Bethany, Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, fell ill. The Lord loved Lazarus and his sisters and often visited this pious family.

When Lazarus fell ill, Jesus Christ was not in Judea. The sisters sent to tell Him: “Lord, behold, the one You love is sick.”

Jesus Christ, having heard this, said: “This disease is not for death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Having spent two days in the place where he was, the Savior said to the disciples: “Let us go to Judea. Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him up.”

Jesus Christ told them about the death of Lazarus (about his death sleep), and the disciples thought that He was talking about an ordinary dream, but since sleep during illness is a good sign of recovery, they said: “Lord, if you fall asleep, you will recover.” .

Then Jesus Christ told them directly. “Lazarus died, and I rejoice for you that I was not there, (this is so that) you may believe. But let us go to him.”

When Jesus Christ approached Bethany, Lazarus had already been buried for four days. Many Jews from Jerusalem came to Martha and Mary to console them in their sorrow.

Martha was the first to learn about the coming of the Savior and hurried to meet Him. Maria sat at home in deep sorrow.

When Martha met the Savior, she said: “Lord, if You were here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask God will give You.”

Jesus Christ tells her: “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha said to Him: “I know that he will rise again on the resurrection, on the last day (that is, on the general resurrection, at the end of the world).”

Then Jesus Christ 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 will never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha answered Him: “So Lord! I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world.”

After this, Martha quickly went home and quietly said to her sister Mary: “The Teacher is here and is calling you.”

Mary, as soon as she heard this good news, quickly got up and went to Jesus Christ. The Jews who were with her in the house and consoled her, seeing that Mary hastily got up and left, followed her, thinking that she had gone to her brother’s grave to cry there.

The Savior had not yet entered the village, but was at the place where Martha met Him.

Mary came to Jesus Christ, fell at His feet and said: “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Jesus Christ, seeing Mary crying and the Jews who came with her, was grieved in spirit and said: “Where have you laid him?”

They say to Him: “Lord, come and see.”

Jesus Christ shed tears.

When they approached the tomb (grave) of Lazarus - and it was a cave, and the entrance to it was blocked with a stone - Jesus Christ said: “Take away the stone.”

Martha said to Him: “Lord, it already stinks (that is, the smell of decay), because he has been in the tomb for four days.”

Jesus says to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

So, they rolled away the stone from the cave.

Then Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven and said to God His Father: “Father, I thank You that You heard Me. I knew that You would always hear Me; but I said this for the sake of the people standing here, so that they might believe that You sent Me.” .

Then, having said these words, Jesus Christ cried out in a loud voice: “Lazarus, get out.”

And the deceased came out of the cave, all entwined on his hands and feet with burial shrouds, and his face was tied with a scarf (this is how the Jews dressed the dead).

Jesus Christ told them: “Untie him, let him go.”

Then many of the Jews who were there and saw this miracle believed in Jesus Christ. And some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. The enemies of Christ, the high priests and Pharisees, became worried and, fearing that all the people would not believe in Jesus Christ, assembled a Sanhedrin (council) and decided to kill Jesus Christ. The rumor about this great miracle began to spread throughout Jerusalem. Many Jews came to Lazarus's house to see him, and when they saw him, they believed in Jesus Christ. Then the high priests decided to kill Lazarus too. But Lazarus, after his resurrection by the Savior, lived for a long time and was later a bishop on the island of Cyprus, in Greece.

NOTE: See the Gospel of John, ch. 11, 1-57 and ch. 12, 9-11.

This great miracle of the Savior, the resurrection of Lazarus, is remembered by St. Orthodox Church on Saturday in the sixth week of Great Lent (the eve of Palm Sunday).