About the four-day Lazarus. Word 2

Beloved! Just as a child-loving mother, feeding a baby with her nipples, experiences sweet moments when the baby is satisfied with her milk - this most tender food - and when some random clot of milk disrupts the correctness of its secretion, then both the child cries and the mother suffers, having the full disposition to nourish, but feeling the cessation of nutrition, in exactly the same way we, having offered you our spiritual milk last time, experienced pleasure, feeding you with verbal food, but when the cloud oblivion, which came to thought, interrupted the word, then you were indignant, deprived of hearing the Gospel teachings, and we were upset, having zeal for the continuation of the word, but encountering an obstacle from the mind - due to oblivion. But perhaps this happened to us so that we remember that (and preaching is the work of) a God who does not want, does not flow, does not covet, but has mercy (Rom. 9:16). But now, at least, since God gives grace to those who preach, not according to the merit of those who speak, but according to the need of those who hear, calling on Him, let us extract, to the best of our ability, the nourishing moisture of the teaching from the Gospel reading we heard today. “A certain Lazarus was sick,” it is narrated (in the Gospel), “from Bethany, from the village where Mary and Martha, her sister, lived. Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was the one who anointed the Lord with myrrh and wiped His feet with her hair. When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness is not for death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (John 11:1–2, 4). So, this illness does not lead to death, but to the glory of God - that means it is no longer a disease, but the gospel, not relaxation, but confirmation. Oh, illness, physician of the weary, teacher of faith, opponent of death, defeat of the devil, dispensation of salvation! Oh, illness, the unshakable foundation of virtue, the teacher of faith, the support of piety! Oh, sickness, healing ailments of the soul, flowing streams of baptism and making bright clothes for the soul! Oh, sickness, giver of heavenly bread, beautiful lamp of faith, trap of the devil and seal of man! “When he heard,” it is said, “that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was” (John 11:6). What need did the Lord have to delay upon receiving the news, and not immediately go to the sick person? Obviously, He expected the death of Lazarus, so that this death would serve to strengthen the faith of the witnesses of the miracle. And so, when Lazarus died, Jesus said to his disciples: “Our friend Lazarus fell asleep; but I go to wake him up” (John 11:11). Indeed, in fact, the death of people is considered by the Lord to be a dream. “I’m going to wake him up.” So what? And, being here, You are powerless to revive the dead? Of course not, but My absence would have deprived this miracle of significance in the eyes of the Jews; if Lazarus had been resurrected, they would probably have thought that by some accident he came to life. So, I will go there myself, so that in My presence, having become eyewitnesses of the miracle I performed, having received a benefit from Me, they will be confirmed in faith. “Lazarus, our friend, fell asleep; but I am going to wake him up." The disciples, hearing this, said: “Lord! if he falls asleep, he will recover” (John 11:12). They judged not from piety, but from a medical point of view - indeed, sleep, although harmful for those plunging into lethargy, relieves some diseases more than sweat. And so, since the disciples thought that the Lord was speaking about the Dormition in the sense of a dream, He expressed himself with greater clarity: “Lazarus died; and I rejoice for you that I was not there, so that you might believe; but let us go to him” (John 11:14–15). He who does not want the death of a sinner now rejoices over the death of a friend? Yes, I rejoice, not for Myself, not for the deceased, but for your sake, because I will use this death to confirm your faith. O death, which brought joy to Christ! O death, the fulfillment of life! Oh, death, the solution to death, the cause of salvation, the restoration of the fallen, the rest of the weary, the strengthening of the weak, the consolation of the righteous! Oh, death, the deposition of the devil, the defeat of the demons, the rebirth of the primordial Adam! Oh, death, co-worker of joy, messenger of incorruption, leader of joy! But I will continue my speech without going into details. Jesus comes to Bethany, He is met by Lazarus’ sisters, they fall at the feet of the Lord and cry and say: “Lord! If You had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21, 32). Wasn't He there? In body He really was not there, but in divinity He was not only there, but also in heaven. Indeed, how did He know about the death of Lazarus if He was not present there by the invisible power of the Divine? So, Lazarus’ sisters said: “Lord! if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” And He answered them: Believe, and you will see the glory of God, thus teaching that faith is the author of good deeds. And when he saw them, and even the Jews who came to them, crying, “he himself was grieved in spirit and was indignant and said, “Where have you laid him” (John 11:33–34)? What does it mean: “grieved in spirit”? Wait, beloved, and a little later you will receive the answer to this question. “He was indignant” - not as we are embarrassed from sadness or fear, but he was embarrassed in Himself - and said: “Where did you put him”? Did He really not know where Lazarus was buried, who knew the time of his death? Of course, He knew, but next to His Divine miracles there are words characteristic of man to show that He is also a Man, just as the prophet says: He is also a Man, and who can know Him? He prefaced this in order to make it clear that there is something else in Him, namely Divinity. "Where did you put it"? Mary answered: “Lord! come and see” (John 11:34). “Jesus shed tears” (John 11:35). What was the need to cry over someone whom He immediately wanted to resurrect? Jesus wept to show us His compassion and humane disposition towards our family; Jesus wept in order to teach us to weep with those who weep, more convincingly by deed than by word; he cried, but did not give in to grief, on the one hand, completely rejecting the absence of tears, as something cruel and inhuman, and on the other, withdrawing from despair, as ignoble and uncharacteristic of a husband; cried, legitimizing compassion. He comes to the cave and sees a stone rolled against the coffin. He orders the Jews around Him to roll away the stone from the door of the tomb. “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed and say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” ... it will happen” (Matthew 17:20), You said. Why can’t you roll away the stone yourself now? I do not do this as if I am powerless, He would answer, but so that they do not consider everything that is happening to be a deceptive vision. I order the Jews themselves to roll away the stone with their own hands, thereby preparing the greatest proof in My favor, namely, so that they themselves become witnesses to the truth of the miracles I performed. Then, when the stone was rolled away, Jesus, looking up to heaven, said: “Father! I thank You that You heard Me” (John 11:41). When did He pray? Now, beloved, receive an answer to the question that recently arose in your mind: precisely when He rebuked the spirit, then He prayed. “Having said this, He cried with a loud voice: Lazarus! get out. And the dead man came out, wrapped hand and foot in graveclothes” (John 11:43–44). Oh, power of the word, you tore apart hell, crushed the copper gates, broke the iron gates, deposed the devil, abolished death, awakened the dead! Oh, the power of the word, you united and renewed the disintegrated members, and returned non-existence to being! Oh, the power of the word, you seemed to awaken a four-day-old dead man from sleep and, wrapped in shrouds, brought him out of the grave as if he were a free and agile walker in the run! Consider, beloved, what has been said here and you will be convinced that at the creation of the world someone said: “Let there be light.” And there was light... let there be lights in the firmament of the sky” and there were (Gen. 1:3, 14), The same one now said: “Lazarus! get out!" And the blood circulation that had stopped in the body was restored, the fallen hair returned to its place and continued to grow on certain parts of the body. "Lazarus! get out!” And the dead man rose, and the four-day-old man seemed not to have died at all. "Lazarus! get out!” And the soul of the deceased is expelled from the underworld - the devil does not dispute, death does not resist - and it is joyfully installed in its home. Having learned from these miracles, beloved, the work of God, do not doubt the resurrection: let Lazarus serve as a mirror for you and, having seen your own reflection in him, believe in your rebellion. The same voice that raised up Lazarus will resurrect all of us, as the apostle says in one place: “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible” (1 Cor. 15:52) - by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith”