With his narration, he assures us the Lord will come to rescue us from death and corruption as he did his friend Lazarus. John wants all of us to identify with Lazarus as Christ’s friend and look into our inner world, corruptible by sin and spiritual death. As God, Christ breaks the laws of nature, but He also sheds tears over Lazarus’ death, as a grieving human. But why is the raising of Lazarus narrated only in John? Possibly, John wishes to draw our attention to Christ’s divinity and also to His humanity. The only evangelist who tells us about Lazarus’s return to life is Saint John the Theologian. That teaches us that true belief is a labour of the heart, and just bearing witness to a miracle of the Son of God is not enough. Eventually, many of them would shout in the square for Christ to be crucified. Soon, a crowd began to gather around Jesus at the news of the miracle of Lazarus’ return from the dead. So who else was present at the raising of Lazarus? Some were neighbours who had come to share their grief. Importantly, Lazarus’ sisters were not the only ones who witnessed Lazarus’ resurrection. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26) With the biblical story of raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus sends a powerful and reassuring message: “I am the resurrection and the life. His friends are holding their noses because of the smell. Jesus prayed to His Father and then cried with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come out.” The icon of the feast shows Lazarus’ appearance at the door in grave clothes. And when Jesus asked for the stone of his grave to be removed, she exclaimed, “but there will be a smell!”. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” said Martha as she met the Lord. Even Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary, had their doubts. No one had ever resurrected someone who had been dead for four days. Previously, Christ had brought to life several people, but they had not been dead for very long. His body was sealed in the tomb and had begun to decompose. Jesus came to the home of his deceased friend, the Righteous Lazarus of Bethany who had been four days dead. “I weep and I wail, when I think upon death, and behold our beauty, fashioned after the image of God, lying in the tomb dishonoured, disfigured, bereft of form,” reads Saint John of Damascus’ hymn heard at the burial services. And even the promise of a future resurrection, however comforting, does not diminish its anguish. It will deny you, and that will be the end of it,” says the hero of a known novel by Turgenev. If there is one thing most people fear and dread, it is death. Both feasts share a common Troparion: “By raising Lazarus from the dead before Your passion, You confirmed the universal resurrection, O Christ God.” In the Bible, these two events are only days apart and symbolise our solid faith in the resurrection of the dead. As an overture to the Passion Week comes the Resurrection of Lazarus, followed by Palm Sunday. In the final days of Lent, we prepare to commemorate the passion and resurrection of our Lord. A handpainted icon of the Resurrection of Lazarus created in our Convent*
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