On John 12:1-18
Palm
Sunday
“Lazarus!
Come out!” So Jesus calls to his friend who has died, over whom he has wept,
and who has lain four days in the tomb. Cyril of Jerusalem points out, “One day
had passed, and a second, and a third: his sinews were decayed, and corruption
was preying already upon his body.”[1] And yet Lazarus does come out, still wearing
his grave clothes, but as alive and well as you or me.
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| Resurrection of Lazarus. Private coll., Athens. 12-13 c. |
When the
One Who, in the beginning, speaks life into being tells one of us, his
creatures, to live, though we lie in a tomb, we will live. Whether we have been
dead four days, like Lazarus, or four thousand years, we will heed this command
of our master. When the one who made us out of dust tells us to arise, though
our bodies have turned to dust, we will arise. Dust cannot resist the divine
word at resurrection time.
The
resurrection of Lazarus was yesterday and the resurrection of Jesus is next
Sunday. Between these two resurrections is today and Holy Week. Today, Palm
Sunday, is inextricably linked to yesterday, Lazarus Saturday. Liturgically,
they form a unit all their own, between the Great Fast and Holy Week. So,
though we rightly call today Palm Sunday in commemoration of Christ’s
triumphant entry into Jerusalem as King and Messiah, let’s not forget the place
of Lazarus in all of this, who appears at the beginning, the middle, and the
end of today’s gospel.
The
gospel begins with Lazarus, who had been dead, eating supper with Jesus and his
disciples. This is one of the signs of the resurrection of the body. Only a
truly embodied person eats food. Jesus will repeat this sign after his own resurrection,
when he will eat broiled fish with his disciples in Jerusalem (Luke 24:42). By
this sign, we know that Lazarus and Jesus are truly risen in the body and not
merely ghosts or visions.
And
then, in the middle of the gospel, we learn of a further connection between
Jesus and Lazarus. Not only are the chief priests now plotting to put Jesus to
death, but also Lazarus, “because, on account of him many of the Jews were going
away and believing in Jesus.”
According to tradition, Lazarus, unlike Jesus, escapes their plot and lives on another thirty years. When he dies a second time, they lay him in a sarcophagus on which they write, “Lazarus of the four days and the friend of Christ.” For four days, Lazarus knew death, which no one else among the living has ever known. The Synaxarion says he never spoke of it and some say he never laughed again until he saw a man stealing a clay pot. And then he laughed, saying, “One earth steals another” (cf. Sanidopoulos).
And then
at the end of today’s gospel, after Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, we
learn why the great crowd is so
exultant and why they hail Jesus as their king: because he has raised Lazarus. This miracle more than all the others
convinces multitudes that Jesus is the Christ. By raising Lazarus, Jesus shows
that he can raise us all and that he will save us – even from the last enemy,
even from death. This divine triumph even over death is the sign that brought
so many to belief in Jesus.
And this
belief of the people is what motivates the Pharisees and chief priests to take
action against Jesus. They see that, due to this great sign, many are believing
in Jesus and they fear that this will provoke the Romans to come and destroy
them. The high priest Caiaphas, though motivated by cowardice, unintentionally
prophesies, saying, “It is expedient for you that one man should die for the
people, and that the whole nation should not perish” (John 11:50). And so, in
the gospel of John, they plot to put Jesus to death as a direct result of his
resurrection of Lazarus.
Jesus’
resurrection of Lazarus leads today to his triumphant entry into Jerusalem – but
it will soon lead also to his death. Quite directly, Jesus lays down his own
life in exchange for giving life to his friend Lazarus. There is no greater
love. Ultimately, Jesus lays down his life to give life to us all. It is good
to be a friend of Christ Jesus. Even though you die, he will give you life.
Today,
we sing again the Troparion of Lazarus from yesterday:
Christ
our God, before your passion you confirmed our common resurrection when you
raised Lazarus from the dead. Therefore, like the children, we carry the
symbols of victory and cry out to you, the Victor over death: Hosanna in the
highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
I
believe that, through Lazarus, Jesus has something to teach us about death.
When Lazarus dies, Jesus weeps. And then, he raises Lazarus from the dead. This
is our perfect model for how to approach death.
First, death
is an occasion for weeping. It is a sorrowful thing. It is a terrible thing. It
is an unnatural thing. It is the last enemy. It is not a natural part of life.
It is not “going to a better place.” It is a thing to be lamented. It is a
thing to put an end to.
Nevertheless,
for each of us there is a time to die (Eccl. 3). For Lazarus, there are two
times to die. And for Jesus, there is a time to die. The death of Jesus is like
no other, because he alone is Life.
And so death cannot keep him in his clutches. When life enters into death, it
is death that dies at last.
Loretta Lynn sings, “Everybody wants to go to
heaven, but nobody wants to die.” And that’s mostly right, and for good reason.
Jesus did not want to die. And he wept again when his time for death drew near
to him in Gethsemane. “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and
supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from
death, and he was heard for his godly fear.” (Heb 5:7).
So in
the face of death, first we weep, as Jesus weeps, and then, after our weeping, we
accept death. We embrace the cross, as Jesus does. We learn to love our enemy. And then, on the other side of that gaping chasm of Hades, there
is hope, because Jesus, the way and the life, has gone there first. In him, there
will be a restoration of all things to right. After death, there comes a better
life with the resurrection. It is not better for us to be dead. It is not
better for our souls to be “freed” from our bodies. It is better for us to rise
in Christ and live again in bodies freed from mortality. So, yes, we grieve in
the face of death, but we do
not
grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have
fallen asleep…. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of
command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first… and so we shall always be with the
Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words (1Th 4:13-18).
[1] Cyril of Jerusalem, “Lecture V - Of Faith,” in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
(Series 2): The Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril, ed. Alexander Roberts
et al., vol. 7, Cyril of
Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen (Grand
Rapids, MI: Hendrickson Pub, 1996), 31
