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On the Saturday before the sixth week of Great Lent, the Holy Church remembers the resurrection of Lazarus. Fulfilling the law of the Old Testament public worship (Ex. 23:17) and doing the will of the Father who sent Him, Jesus Christ during the days of His earthly life went to the Old Testament Passover in Jerusalem. Four Passovers cover the time of the Gospel saving sermon, which He began after His baptism and continued until His ascension. So Jesus Christ went to Jerusalem and on the feast of His last Passover, despite the fact that the Divine glory of His teaching and miracles, which had already spread everywhere in the Promised Land, strongly armed the envious elders of the Jews against Him, who had long been plotting and trying to put Him to death. The last journey of Jesus and Christ on Easter even more revealed and increased His Divine glory, and also increased the envy and hatred of the scribes towards Him. The first event during this journey, which especially glorified the Lord and increased the anger of the Sanhedrin of Judea against Him, was the resurrection of Lazarus of four days, performed by the Lord in the presence of a large crowd and converting many to faith in Jesus Christ (John 11:45). Lazarus was a Jew and a Pharisee, the son of Simon the Pharisee (Matthew 26:6), originally from Bethany. The Lord often during the days of His earthly life visited the house of Lazarus, whom He loved with his sisters and called His friend (John 11:3,5,11). The Lord allowed him to die so that the Son of God might be glorified and His disciples might believe (John 11:4,15). Hearing about the resurrection of Lazarus, the Jewish high priests and elders said about Jesus Christ: what will we do? for this Man does many signs. If we leave Him like this, everyone will believe in Him: and the Romans will come and take away our place and our language (John 11:47-48). Bishop Caiaphas gave the Sanhedrin advice that served as a prophecy about the saving power of the death on the cross of Jesus Christ: you know nothing; neither do you think, as we have not, that one man may die for the people, and not the whole tongue perish (John 11:49–50). From that day they decided to kill Jesus Christ without fail, promulgating the command to take Him wherever they saw Him (John 11:53). The resurrection of Lazarus so embittered the scribes and high priests that they decided to kill not only the Resurrectionist, but also the resurrected one (John 12:10). Lazarus retired to the island of Cyprus, where he was subsequently appointed bishop by the Apostles; the Mother of God gave him an omophorion made by Her hands. After his resurrection, Lazarus lived for 30 years and maintained strict abstinence. He reposed for the second time in Cyprus. In the 9th century, the Byzantine Emperor Leo the Philosopher transferred the relics of righteous Lazarus from Cyprus to Constantinople. The Orthodox Church, at the end of Lent, entering the week of the suffering and death of the Lord, begins its sacred memories with the resurrection of Lazarus, which served as the beginning of a decisive uprising of the Jewish Council for the destruction of the Savior and even Lazarus. The Church has remembered the resurrection of Lazarus since ancient Christian times. 4th century Church Fathers St. Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, St. John Chrysostom, bl. Augustine and others left us their teachings, delivered on Lazarus Saturday. “Today,” says St. Chrysostom, Lazarus, raised from the dead, destroyed for us many and various temptations.” In the 7th century St. Andrei Kritsky also wrote a discourse on the four days of Lazarus and a canon now sung by the Church. In the 8th century, Cosmas of Maium and John of Damascus also betrayed to the Church the canons for the day of the resurrection of Lazarus, now sung by the Church. At the end of the 9th century, the Byzantine emperor, Leo the Philosopher, transferred the relics of St. righteous Lazarus from Cyprus to Constantinople, composed on the day of his resurrection some of the sacred hymns now used by St. Church. According to the voice of the Church, with the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus Christ wanted, among other things, to show God and man in Himself, to assure His disciples of His future resurrection, of everyone - in the general resurrection of the dead, and to show sinners the image of the spiritual resurrection. Indeed, in His person, the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in the most obvious way Divinity and humanity at the tomb of Lazarus. As an omniscient God, He announced to His disciples about the death of Lazarus without being notified of it. The Lord comes to Bethany; Martha and Mary, sisters of the deceased Lazarus, and others publicly confess Jesus Christ as almighty and the Son of God. Lord, says Martha, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now we know that if you ask anything from God, God will give it to you. Yes, Lord: I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. Mary also says the same thing, falling at the feet of the Savior. Likewise, other Jews talk about Him among themselves: see how you love Him; Is it not possible for this one to open the eyes of the blind, so that this one will not die? Then Jesus Christ Himself publicly calls Himself the Giver of Life. Your brother will be resurrected, He says to console Martha: I am the resurrection and the life: believe in Me, even if he dies, he will live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Finally, as the true God, Jesus Christ, after a short prayer to the Heavenly Father, with His omnipotent word, resurrects Lazarus on the fourth day after his death. “To You, Master, the King of all, everything is possible, says the Church: Your voice destroyed the kingdom of hell, and the word of Your power raised the four-day-old from the tomb, and Lazarus became a saving prototype of the restoration of existence.” Like the true man Jesus Christ, having come to Bethany, where Lazarus lived and died, and seeing the sister of His dead friend crying and those who came with her crying, He Himself became indignant, shed tears, and as if ignorant, He asked: where will you lay him? So the Lord appeared at the tomb of Lazarus, “assuring us of His two beings,” says the Church. As a man asked: where am I buried, and as if God raised a four-day-old man.” Weep Jesus, this mortal being: Having revived Your friend, these Divine fortresses, - says the synaxar on Saturday of the resurrection of Lazarus. The Lord's Royal Entry into Jerusalem The lot is always in the word of the vast sky: People seek a solution to speechlessness. This is how the synaxarion begins in the week of Vai. After the resurrection of Lazarus, the second event during the last journey of Jesus Christ on Easter, which glorified the Lord and preceded His suffering and death, was the royal entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. This entrance is called royal, in accordance with the prophecies and the Gospel, where Jesus Christ coming to Jerusalem is called the King: behold, your gentle King is coming to you (Zech.9:9; Matt.21:5), and His entrance was truly royal. Both before the entrance and at His very entrance, Jesus Christ reveals that He is completely aware of what awaits Him in Jerusalem, and that His procession here to suffering and death is voluntary. Before the entrance and especially at the very entrance of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, the Savior is shown almost universal service and devotion, like a King and Lord. Six days before Easter, the Lord comes to Bethany and reclines at a supper in the house of Lazarus, at which, among others, Lazarus himself was present, Martha served Jesus Christ, and Mary anointed His head and feet with spikenard ointment. Judas Iscariot regretted this waste, covering up his intentions with the plausibility of caring for the poor; but Jesus Christ, who voluntarily went to his death, predicted that this action of Mary was His preparation for burial. On the morning following Vespers, on the day of real Palm Resurrection, the Lord makes His solemn Royal entry into Jerusalem (John 12:1–18). Approaching the Mount of Olives, Jesus Christ commands His two disciples to go to the village and bring from there a donkey and a colt, and if anyone reproaches you, why should we turn them away? answer: The Lord requires. Likewise, the owner, completely obedient to His command, unquestioningly allows the disciples to fulfill the will of the Lord. Then follows the obedient service to the Lord of donkeys and foals, on tenderness of no one from all people. Further, the voluntary and royal procession of the Lord is presented in full royal majesty. The multitude of people spread their vestments to the priest along the way; the friends cut branches from the trees and spread them to the priest along the way. And the people who came before Him and followed the cry, saying: Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the gift of Israel, hosanna in the highest. The Lord enters the church in Jerusalem, and here His royal power appears in the uncomplaining submission of those who sell and buy to Him, who, by His will, immediately leave the church. The royal entrance of Jesus Christ is sealed by His omnipotent power over the laws of nature: Chromium and the blind man came to him in the church and healed them. Thus, everything obeyed and served Jesus Christ at His last entry into Jerusalem, as its Creator, Lord and King. Some scribes, amid the general triumph of the Son of David, seeing His Divine miracles, were indignant (Matthew 21:15), as if the world were following Him (John 12:19). The royal entrance of Jesus Christ was together and meek: behold, your King is coming to you, meek. Nothing distinguishes Him from the people traveling to Jerusalem, except that He was pleased to sit on the lot of a donkey, covered with the scanty clothes of the disciples. But surely your King is coming. For all the people accompanying Him, filled with a feeling of reverence for Him, suddenly and unanimously show Him honor worthy of a king. Behold, your King; only He does not come to reign on the earthly throne and enrich the people with earthly goods: behold, your King comes to you, meek and saving: he comes, bringing eternal salvation, if you accept Him by faith. This meek King is ready to accept Jerusalem and all its children under his fatherly protection, and to grant true peace to all Jews. Seeing the city, He wept over it, saying, “If only you had understood, in this day you would have come to your peace: but now it is hidden from your sight” (Luke 19:41-42). The solemn and meek entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem was a new incentive for the scribes and elders of the Jewish people, blinded by envy and malice, to hasten the destruction of the Messiah. Indignant at Him for His miracles, and because the youths cried out to Him: Hosanna to the son of David (Matthew 21:1-17), the Pharisees said: You see, behold, the world follows Him (John 12:19). In reverence for the Royal Entry into Jerusalem, the Church in the first times of Christianity established the holiday of Vai, set among the twelve. The event of the Lord's entry into Jerusalem was joyful for the original Apostolic Church, whose members, seeing this event, began to rejoice and praise God with a great voice about all the powers that they had seen (Luke 19:37). In the 3rd century, Methodius, Bishop of Tire or Patara, on this holiday spoke a teaching that has survived to our times. In the 4th century St. Ambrose of Milan, St. John Chrysostom, Epiphanius of Cyprus, in the 5th century St. Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople, also spoke teachings on the day of the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem. St. Ambrose of Milan in his homily for the week Vai said: “Here, first of all, it is necessary to note the day on which Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem. It was the tenth day of the month on which the Passover lamb was chosen, which the Israelites slain on the fourteenth day of the month; consequently, Christ, the true Lamb, who was to be crucified on Friday, entered Jerusalem on the day on which the representative lamb was chosen. Further St. The Church, this tender mother of ours, commands us, following the example of those who met Jesus Christ then, to spread clothes along His path and cut tree branches - only in a spiritual way. Now the donkey is replaced by every righteous soul: on it the Lord now enters Jerusalem when, dwelling in our souls, arouses in them aversion from the world and love for the heavenly fatherland. You spread your clothes along the way before the Lord when, preparing the Lord’s way for you, you pacify your bodies with abstinence; and you will receive branches from trees if, having loved the virtues of the saints, you prepare the way for the Lord to come to you; for what else were Abraham, Joseph, David and other righteous people, if not fruitful trees of the Church of God? Therefore, if you want to achieve eternal salvation, then learn obedience from Abraham, chastity from Joseph, humility from David; and since the date is a sign of victory, then we will rightly hold date branches in our hands when, singing songs of victory, we try to defeat the devil with a virtuous life; because it is in vain that he holds date branches in his hands, whom the devil overcomes with flattery.” St. Chrysostom speaks about the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem: “through the colt the Church and the new people are signified, which was once unclean, but after Jesus Christ sat on it, it became pure. Notice how precise the whole foreshadowing is. The disciples untie the yoke: - both the Jews and we are called into the new grace-filled Church through the Apostles. Our blessed, glorious fate aroused jealousy among the Jews; The donkey walks behind the foal. And indeed, after Jesus Christ has taken in the Gentiles for Himself, then the Jews, out of their zeal, will come to Him, which the Apostle Paul clearly shows when he says: as there was blindness on part of Israel, until the fulfillment of tongues came: and thus all Israel will be saved. Otherwise, there is no need to tell the prophet in such detail about the age of the donkey. It is also clear from this that the Apostles will bring the pagans without difficulty. And indeed, just as no one hindered the Apostles when they led these animals, so no one could stop them in calling the pagans when they caught them with their preaching. Further, Christ does not sit on a naked colt, but on one covered with the clothes of the Apostles: this means that the Apostles, accepting something from the zeal of the pagans, gave everything of theirs to them, as Paul says: I will depend on weakness, and I will depend on your souls (2 Cor. 12:15). But pay attention to the obedience of the donkey: how he, not at all trained and not yet knowing the bridle, did not rush quickly, but walked quietly and calmly. And this served as an omen of the future, expressing the submission of the pagans and their speedy change to a comfortable life. All this was accomplished with the word: having renounced, she will bring Mi; and the disorderly came into order, and the unclean became clean.” St. Epiphanius of Cyprus on the Feast of Vaius spoke to his listeners: “Why did Christ, having walked first of all on foot, now, and only now, sit on an animal? To show that He will ascend to the cross and be glorified on it. What does the opposite signify? - the obstinate disposition of the spirit of a person expelled from paradise, to whom Christ sent two disciples, that is, two testaments - the Old and the New. Who does donkey mean? - without a doubt a synagogue, which life was carrying under a heavy burden, and on the back of which Christ would one day sit. Who does the donkey mean? - an unbridled pagan people, on whom no one sat, that is, neither law, nor fear, nor an Angel, nor a prophet, nor Scripture, but only one God the Word, who was in Bethlehem in the same manger with a wordless manger, so that, having freed us from wordlessness, he would make theologians. What does the abandonment of a donkey mean? – liberation from idolatry and cessation of idolatry sacrifices. Who was marked by those who did not allow the foal to be untied? - Jews and demons. What did the children lay down their clothes to commemorate? - in commemoration and putting off the old man, the stripping and desolation of the synagogue. Who did the Theologized Children mean? - without a doubt the faithful people of the Church, the generation of Christ. Whose mother is theirs? - the baptismal font in which believers are reborn. What do the branches of the olive tree form? - merciful souls; the road marks the path on which virtues are acquired that remove the old man from us. What do date branches mean? – The pure souls of the righteous, who flourish like dates and multiply like cedars in Lebanon, planted in the house of the Lord; also victory over hell and freedom from their power, which the victor Christ brought. Who did the previous ones mean? – righteous prophets; and those who followed - the Apostles and the pagans who believed after them, and the city signified Jerusalem on high; sanctuary - the Kingdom of Heaven, from which Christ expelled the Jews as unworthy. This is how we should look at this holiday and imagine the sacrament that the Lord performed.” In the 7th century St. Andrew of Crete, in VIII Cosmas of Maium, John of Damascus, in IX Theodore and Joseph the Studites, Emperor Leo the Philosopher, Theophanes, in XIV Nikephoros Xanthopoulos wrote sacred hymns and legends, which the Orthodox Church now performs to glorify the entry into Jerusalem.