On this Lazarus Saturday, we remember how the close friend of Jesus Christ, Lazarus, died and was brought back to life. How did this happen? What was Jesus Christ seeking to teach His followers, in both the first and future centuries?

The Gospel this morning from the 11th chapter of the Gospel of St John tells the story about how Jesus Christ on hearing that his friend Lazarus was seriously ill waited two days before travelling to see him. Then Jesus Christ gave two reasons for why He had waited. First, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I might awaken him.” Second, as the Gospel states: “So then Jesus told them forthrightly, ‘Lazarus has died, And for your sakes, I rejoice that I was not there, so that you may have faith; but let us go to him.”

Understandably, the disciples are rather confused: Why didn’t Jesus Christ tell them immediately that Lazarus had died? Why is He now saying to the disciples that going to see Lazarus two days after he has died will bring faith to them? The disciples did not know that Lazarus was going to be raised from the dead. However, they did know that Jesus would be risking His life by returning to Judea, because the Judeans had been threatening to stone Him. The disciples recognised the danger; and it was Thomas who “said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us go as well, so that we may die with Him.”

Let’s try to understand the meaning of this story about the death and return to life of Lazarus. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scriptures points out that the word Lazarus is a shorted form of Eleazar meaning “God has helped.” Of course, the disciples, the parents of Lazarus and Lazarus himself all would have known the meaning of his name. Therefore, we can be sure that many people knew throughout his life, Lazarus was going to be helped by God. As St Cyril of Alexandria wrote in his Commentary on the Gospel of John: “[In Jesus Christ] we have someone who is able to raise us again after we have fallen.” St Cyril’s words apply not only to be raised from the dead, but to living a life of faith and purpose even when we fall. At his birth, the parents of Lazarus did not know precisely how he would be helped by God. His parents simply knew the right name for their new born child.

When Lazarus died, and he needed the help of God—as we all do—Jesus Christ first said that Lazarus had fallen asleep and that Christ wished to “awaken him.” Many of the Church Fathers have preached that sleep can be a sign of death or of not living the full life that God intends for us. Later, a remarkable Serbian bishop, St Nickolai Velimirovic, who died in 1956, preached of Lazarus, as set out in his daily meditations, The Prologue from Ochrid: “The Lord of life [Jesus Christ] calls death sleep. Oh, what an unspeakable comfort that is to us! Oh, what sweet tidings for the world! Physical death does not, then, mean the annihilation [that is, the complete destruction] of man but only his repose [that is, his state of rest, his calm], from which he can be [awakened] by Him who first [awakened] the dust of life by His Word. When the Lord cried, ‘Lazarus!’, the man awoke and lived. The Lord knows the name of each of us…. That voice can … wake us from the sleep of sin,” preached St Nickolai, “Waken us, O Lord. To Thee be glory and praise forever.”

St Augustine has preached: “It was really true that [Lazarus] was sleeping. To his sisters he was dead; to our Lord, he was sleeping. To those who could not raise him again, he was dead. Our Lord awoke him with as much ease from his grave as you might awake a sleeper from his bed…. Asleep [the Lord] says, because He is foretelling their resurrection. And so, all the dead are sleeping, both good and bad [persons].” St Augustine continued: “But just as it matters to those who sleep and wake daily, what they see in their sleep—some have pleasant dreams, others nightmares—so it is [in death]. Everyone sleeps and wakes up again in circumstances peculiar to [their] situation.”

Origen wrote of this Gospel passage: “Now, we ought to be aware that there are some Lazaruses even now who, after they have become Jesus’ friends, have become sick and died, and as dead persons they have remained in the tomb…. [Yet they will be] summoned from the tomb to the things outside it by Jesus with his loud voice. [Those] who trust in Jesus come forth [from the tomb into eternal life].” [end of quote]

Rememeber, we do not need to die like Lazarus to be brought back to life, nor do we have to wait for the Final Judgement to be brought back to life. We can experience that the Lord wishes to give each of us a fuller life now—a life in which we grow closer through grace—through God’s love for each of us—closer to Him and closer to others. That will happen when we pray with faith for guidance as to how best to live our lives.

And so, we ascribe as is justly due all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, always now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.