WEBVTT 00:00:00.490 --> 00:00:02.770 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 00:00:02.770 --> 00:00:06.509 of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ. 00:00:06.969 --> 00:00:12.070 Glory be to God. With today, Lazarus Saturday, 00:00:12.269 --> 00:00:16.710 we have arrived at the conclusion of Lent, which 00:00:16.710 --> 00:00:21.989 officially ended yesterday. And Lazarus is our 00:00:21.989 --> 00:00:26.629 inauguration into the entrance of the Lord in 00:00:26.629 --> 00:00:31.039 the temple, Palm Sunday, Holy Week. and culminating 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:36.640 in our Lord's resurrection. Lazarus Saturday 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:42.200 enjoys a prominence that, to my knowledge, does 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:48.259 not exist in other Christian liturgical rites, 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:52.600 ancient or modern. That Lazarus in this event 00:00:52.600 --> 00:00:56.600 is accorded a special day, the resurrection of 00:00:56.600 --> 00:01:01.630 Lazarus, Lazarus Saturday. Jesus, of course, 00:01:01.729 --> 00:01:04.650 performed several other raisings of the dead. 00:01:04.989 --> 00:01:08.390 The daughter of the ruler of synagogue, Jairus, 00:01:08.549 --> 00:01:13.349 the funeral procession when he met the widow, 00:01:13.489 --> 00:01:18.650 the son of the widow of Nain, and her only son, 00:01:18.750 --> 00:01:25.629 and raised him from the dead. The event, the 00:01:25.629 --> 00:01:29.890 gospel, the raising of Lazarus, is, to my mind, 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:35.200 a little odd because it's so important that it's 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:41.980 mentioned only once in the four Gospels. I was 00:01:41.980 --> 00:01:48.459 pleasantly surprised that unexpectedly and in 00:01:48.459 --> 00:01:53.280 a quite unexpected place, the resurrection of 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:57.099 Lazarus made its appearance on public television. 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:04.599 I enjoy watching Jeopardy. It exercises my mind, 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:09.699 my memory, and I like to match wits with usually 00:02:09.699 --> 00:02:14.740 younger contestants who amaze me with their encyclopedic 00:02:14.740 --> 00:02:20.439 knowledge. All topics. And they had Bible stories. 00:02:20.819 --> 00:02:23.139 Books of the Bible was one of the categories. 00:02:23.900 --> 00:02:28.419 And the question was, in which book of the Bible 00:02:29.710 --> 00:02:33.569 Is it recorded that Jesus raised Lazarus from 00:02:33.569 --> 00:02:36.810 the dead? And I thought, gee, that's an easy 00:02:36.810 --> 00:02:43.830 one. One contestant said, Book of Exodus. And 00:02:43.830 --> 00:02:52.770 I thought, I mean. And then a young woman pressed 00:02:52.770 --> 00:02:57.449 the button and she said, Acts of the Apostles? 00:02:59.329 --> 00:03:02.569 No. And then the third one didn't even want to 00:03:02.569 --> 00:03:08.610 stab at an answer. So I thought, Lord, we have 00:03:08.610 --> 00:03:12.650 to make the light of Jesus Christ and his gospel 00:03:12.650 --> 00:03:17.629 shine more brightly in our country. And that's 00:03:17.629 --> 00:03:24.189 an incentive for us to pray for this. But Lazarus... 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:27.439 Getting back to the topic, it's mentioned only 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:31.319 in the Gospel of St. John, peculiar to my way 00:03:31.319 --> 00:03:35.080 of thinking. Some of the early church commentaries 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:39.080 offer what to me is a very plausible explanation 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:43.219 for this. The Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, 00:03:43.340 --> 00:03:48.280 Luke, do not mention this because when they wrote 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:57.870 their Gospels, Lazarus was still alive. and by 00:03:57.870 --> 00:04:01.090 the time John finished his last and fourth gospel, 00:04:01.330 --> 00:04:06.189 Lazarus had already undergone his second and 00:04:06.189 --> 00:04:10.990 final death to the resurrection. Early Christian 00:04:10.990 --> 00:04:18.230 commentators tell us that Lazarus went on to 00:04:18.230 --> 00:04:22.490 become a bishop in Cyprus, and one of the charming 00:04:22.490 --> 00:04:27.209 stories is that the Theotokos, wove his first 00:04:27.209 --> 00:04:32.430 almophore. You know, the bishop's large stole 00:04:32.430 --> 00:04:40.490 for him. But only in John is this very important 00:04:40.490 --> 00:04:46.269 event recorded. Notice Lazarus was dead for four 00:04:46.269 --> 00:04:53.410 days. St. John even uses that very stark word. 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:59.199 when he says, by now he stinketh, so that his 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:02.279 body had begun to corrupt. That was in the Jewish 00:05:02.279 --> 00:05:06.360 thinking that the corruption sets in at four 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:12.740 days. This, of course, is in keeping with why 00:05:12.740 --> 00:05:18.959 Jesus foretold his three -day resurrection. Not 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:22.149 only that he would just as... Jonah was in the 00:05:22.149 --> 00:05:25.370 belly of the whale for three days, so the Son 00:05:25.370 --> 00:05:28.170 of Man will be in the heart of the earth for 00:05:28.170 --> 00:05:37.889 three days and then rise. But Jesus was raised 00:05:37.889 --> 00:05:43.310 so that he did not go to the period of corruption 00:05:43.310 --> 00:05:51.139 four days plus. This also is in keeping, with 00:05:51.139 --> 00:05:56.360 one of the Psalms, Psalm 16, which says, Thou 00:05:56.360 --> 00:06:01.819 wilt not let thy Holy One, or thy anointed, or 00:06:01.819 --> 00:06:07.040 thy Christ, it can be translated by all three 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:10.639 of those words, Thou wilt not allow thy Christ, 00:06:10.839 --> 00:06:14.220 thy Holy One, thy anointed, to see corruption. 00:06:15.300 --> 00:06:20.610 The same fact is, truth is, mentioned in the 00:06:20.610 --> 00:06:23.850 Liturgy of St. Basil, which we have heard on 00:06:23.850 --> 00:06:27.810 the Sundays of Lent, when it says, it was not 00:06:27.810 --> 00:06:32.129 possible for the author of life to be a victim 00:06:32.129 --> 00:06:36.910 of corruption. So we see here a very important 00:06:36.910 --> 00:06:44.870 theological truth. Jesus' body did not see corruption. 00:06:46.089 --> 00:06:49.939 In the early church, 5th, 6th century, there 00:06:49.939 --> 00:06:53.180 was such an emphasis on the divinity of Christ 00:06:53.180 --> 00:07:01.120 that a wrong idea emerged that Jesus' body from 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:06.279 the moment of conception was incorruptible. The 00:07:06.279 --> 00:07:10.519 church said, no, this is not true, because if 00:07:10.519 --> 00:07:14.240 his body was incorruptible body, then the body 00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:17.360 he assumed would not be the same as our body. 00:07:17.790 --> 00:07:23.310 which is a corruptible body. So he assumed a 00:07:23.310 --> 00:07:27.970 corruptible body, but in fact, in the tomb, it 00:07:27.970 --> 00:07:32.410 did not see corruption because, again, it is 00:07:32.410 --> 00:07:36.509 impossible for the author of life to see corruption. 00:07:40.220 --> 00:07:44.339 event also, and it struck me again today when 00:07:44.339 --> 00:07:47.879 I heard the gospel, this is the opportunity for 00:07:47.879 --> 00:07:53.060 Jesus to tell us, I am the resurrection and the 00:07:53.060 --> 00:07:58.480 life. He who believes in me, even though he dies, 00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:03.300 will live. Do you believe this response was, 00:08:03.540 --> 00:08:09.620 yes, Lord, I believe. We should thank God for 00:08:09.620 --> 00:08:14.579 the possibility of eternal life and look forward 00:08:14.579 --> 00:08:19.579 to the resurrection on the final day. Again, 00:08:19.579 --> 00:08:24.199 a truth affirmed in the Troparion, by raising 00:08:24.199 --> 00:08:29.060 Lazarus from the dead, thou didst confirm the 00:08:29.060 --> 00:08:33.220 universal resurrection. So to our Lord Jesus 00:08:33.220 --> 00:08:37.139 Christ, who has suffered, and died for our sins, 00:08:37.299 --> 00:08:41.559 and rose again to lead us to eternal life, be 00:08:41.559 --> 00:08:44.919 glory and honor forever and ever. Amen.