Homily for the Saturday of the Resurrection of Righteous Lazarus #

Great Lent is drawing to a close, and we stand on the threshold of the Passion days. At the beginning of the fast, when we spoke of its meaning and purpose, we reflected that it should be a time for us to limit ourselves in all that stirs us toward sin, so that we might stand in repentance before the face of our conscience, before human truth, and before the truth of God. Our self-restraint in all that is non-essential, excessive, pleasurable, or entertaining ought to bring benefit and joy both to ourselves and to those around us.

And now, as we bring the fast to a close, let us give an account to our conscience—where have I limited myself? How well have I managed to hold back from sinful impulses? And has my abstinence brought any help or benefit to those near me? If it has done neither, then the fast was in vain.

In the coming days we will remember how the Lord entered Jerusalem, to suffer and to die, taking upon Himself the burden of suffering for the sake of others who are suffering from sin. As for us, who live at times in abundance and comfort, let us, while there is yet time, turn to the path of repentance and the doing of good deeds, remembering the words of the Apostle: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day” (2 Corinthians 6:2; Romans 13:12–13).

We stand at the threshold of the Passion days, as the Pascha of Christ draws near—granted as a victorious reward for abstinence and suffering, the beginning of a great and gladdening hope. That hope was proclaimed to us by the Lord in the resurrection of Lazarus, showing that He is stronger than death—for at His single command, the man dead four days rose up from the tomb.

In the holy Gospel that was read today, we heard of that miracle performed upon Lazarus, the friend of the Lord. Lazarus’s sisters, Mary and Martha, had begged the Lord to heal their ailing brother. The Lord, despite the threat of the Jews who sought to stone Him, went to Bethany. And coming to the house of Lazarus and finding him already dead, He heard from Martha: “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” And we hear His word in reply: “Believest thou that he shall rise again?” And Martha answers, “Yea, Lord, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” She said this with unwavering hope, for she always believed that before her stood the Lord and God, and such faith and hope could bring about the miracle of resurrection. The Lord speaks to us, just as He spoke to Martha, instilling perfect hope: “I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).

Here we may also recall the following—Martha did not know that three days earlier Christ had said to His disciples that His friend was gravely ill and that He allowed him to die so that a miracle of resurrection might take place, and that through being raised from the dead, Lazarus might be enriched with such a faith in the Lord’s victory over death that nothing could ever shake it again.

Christ revealed Himself to be Lord over both life and death, equal to the Father, when He lifted His eyes toward heaven and said, “Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me.” Thus the people came to believe in the power of His prayer, when His word was fulfilled in deed. The Lord Himself explained, “And I knew that Thou hearest Me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (John 11:42).

It was for the sake of the people standing around that Christ spoke aloud those commanding words: “Lazarus, come forth!”—after which, the man dead four days immediately appeared alive. “The Lord cried out with a loud voice for the sake of those standing by, for He was able to raise him not only with a quiet voice, but even by His will alone…” says Saint Gregory Palamas. And he continues: “All of this was so that by their own eyes and by the stench of the dead man, by their own touching of the stone, the burial cloths, and the napkin about Lazarus’s head, and by their own hearing of the Lord’s voice, which reached all their ears, they might know and believe that He is the One who calleth those things which be not as though they were (Romans 4:17), who upholdeth all things by the word of His power, and who in the beginning, by a single word, created all that is from nothing.”

The Lord, with that mighty cry — “Lazarus, come forth!” — reached down to the depths of sinners’ hearts, when the grace of God stood before their very eyes, and the simple and humble of soul understood the full weight of what was happening. They were strengthened in faith and stirred with the desire to know the will of God, to abandon the path of sin and unrighteousness, to turn to the Savior, and to begin a new and better life, firm and unshakable. But the scribes and Pharisees were so far from faith that not only did they fail to believe, but senselessly plotted evil against Him, seething with indignation and seeking to put Him to death.

Today, on the threshold of the Resurrection of the Lord, in the figure of the risen Lazarus, we behold a joyful herald of the victory over death. The Lord conquered death not only in the immediate and visible sense — in the bodily raising of Lazarus — but also in another sense, one that pertains to each one of us. God, who created man in His own image and likeness, fashioned him as His friend and co-laborer, and this friendship was deepened still more and made yet more intimate in our baptism. “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” — this is the proclamation at baptism. Each of us, becoming a friend of God at baptism, is called to live out this friendship, to deepen it and to make it steadfast.

Yet often in life the purity and strength of that friendship in us becomes exhausted. And in sin, we may feel that our soul lies in the tomb, struck by death — like one who has died, and to whose grave even his sisters are afraid to draw near, for he already stinketh. But the creative and contemplative faculties of our soul mourn, like Martha and Mary, over the one within us who was once the Lord’s friend but is now dying. And when a struggle arises between light and darkness, virtue and sin, life and death — the Lord draws near to us. And we, like Martha, may cry out: “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, Thy friend had not died…” And we hear His word: “Believest thou that he shall rise again?” Believe! “I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live!”

The Lord came and commanded Lazarus to rise from the dead — this is an image of resurrection and transformation for us. In each of us lies a dying Lazarus, hopeless, defeated by sin. And the Lord permits us, through temptations and falls, to approach the edge of spiritual ruin and destruction — but this is not unto death, but unto the glory of God. And he that believeth in the help of the Most High shall not die forever, but rather, having been enriched by the experience of God’s victory and the miracle of the resurrection of a soul once stinking with sin, shall be filled with unshakable faith. And after rising up, he who has suffered and been tempted himself “is able to succour them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:18).

In today’s Gospel, standing at the very doorstep of the Passion and the joy of the Resurrection, the Lord speaks to us: “Be not afraid! I am the Resurrection and the Life!” That friend of God who is buried in your soul — if he is mortally ill and dying without hope, yet at a single word from Jesus he may rise again — and shall indeed rise!

Brothers and sisters! Let us go forth with this hope and this assurance through the days of the Passion toward Holy Pascha — from the temporal to the eternal, from death to life, from our defeat in sin to the victory of the Lord. Let us enter into the hope and light of the coming Resurrection, rejoicing that the Lord hath loved us, even as He loved His friend Lazarus.