Lazarus Saturday 2021 Fr. James Jorgenson

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.

Glory be to God. With today, Lazarus Saturday,

we have arrived at the conclusion of Lent, which

officially ended yesterday. And Lazarus is our

inauguration into the entrance of the Lord in

the temple, Palm Sunday, Holy Week. and culminating

in our Lord's resurrection. Lazarus Saturday

enjoys a prominence that, to my knowledge, does

not exist in other Christian liturgical rites,

ancient or modern. That Lazarus in this event

is accorded a special day, the resurrection of

Lazarus, Lazarus Saturday. Jesus, of course,

performed several other raisings of the dead.

The daughter of the ruler of synagogue, Jairus,

the funeral procession when he met the widow,

the son of the widow of Nain, and her only son,

and raised him from the dead. The event, the

gospel, the raising of Lazarus, is, to my mind,

a little odd because it's so important that it's

mentioned only once in the four Gospels. I was

pleasantly surprised that unexpectedly and in

a quite unexpected place, the resurrection of

Lazarus made its appearance on public television.

I enjoy watching Jeopardy. It exercises my mind,

my memory, and I like to match wits with usually

younger contestants who amaze me with their encyclopedic

knowledge. All topics. And they had Bible stories.

Books of the Bible was one of the categories.

And the question was, in which book of the Bible

Is it recorded that Jesus raised Lazarus from

the dead? And I thought, gee, that's an easy

one. One contestant said, Book of Exodus. And

I thought, I mean. And then a young woman pressed

the button and she said, Acts of the Apostles?

No. And then the third one didn't even want to

stab at an answer. So I thought, Lord, we have

to make the light of Jesus Christ and his gospel

shine more brightly in our country. And that's

an incentive for us to pray for this. But Lazarus...

Getting back to the topic, it's mentioned only

in the Gospel of St. John, peculiar to my way

of thinking. Some of the early church commentaries

offer what to me is a very plausible explanation

for this. The Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark,

Luke, do not mention this because when they wrote

their Gospels, Lazarus was still alive. and by

the time John finished his last and fourth gospel,

Lazarus had already undergone his second and

final death to the resurrection. Early Christian

commentators tell us that Lazarus went on to

become a bishop in Cyprus, and one of the charming

stories is that the Theotokos, wove his first

almophore. You know, the bishop's large stole

for him. But only in John is this very important

event recorded. Notice Lazarus was dead for four

days. St. John even uses that very stark word.

when he says, by now he stinketh, so that his

body had begun to corrupt. That was in the Jewish

thinking that the corruption sets in at four

days. This, of course, is in keeping with why

Jesus foretold his three -day resurrection. Not

only that he would just as... Jonah was in the

belly of the whale for three days, so the Son

of Man will be in the heart of the earth for

three days and then rise. But Jesus was raised

so that he did not go to the period of corruption

four days plus. This also is in keeping, with

one of the Psalms, Psalm 16, which says, Thou

wilt not let thy Holy One, or thy anointed, or

thy Christ, it can be translated by all three

of those words, Thou wilt not allow thy Christ,

thy Holy One, thy anointed, to see corruption.

The same fact is, truth is, mentioned in the

Liturgy of St. Basil, which we have heard on

the Sundays of Lent, when it says, it was not

possible for the author of life to be a victim

of corruption. So we see here a very important

theological truth. Jesus' body did not see corruption.

In the early church, 5th, 6th century, there

was such an emphasis on the divinity of Christ

that a wrong idea emerged that Jesus' body from

the moment of conception was incorruptible. The

church said, no, this is not true, because if

his body was incorruptible body, then the body

he assumed would not be the same as our body.

which is a corruptible body. So he assumed a

corruptible body, but in fact, in the tomb, it

did not see corruption because, again, it is

impossible for the author of life to see corruption.

event also, and it struck me again today when

I heard the gospel, this is the opportunity for

Jesus to tell us, I am the resurrection and the

life. He who believes in me, even though he dies,

will live. Do you believe this response was,

yes, Lord, I believe. We should thank God for

the possibility of eternal life and look forward

to the resurrection on the final day. Again,

a truth affirmed in the Troparion, by raising

Lazarus from the dead, thou didst confirm the

universal resurrection. So to our Lord Jesus

Christ, who has suffered, and died for our sins,

and rose again to lead us to eternal life, be

glory and honor forever and ever. Amen.