About the four-day Lazarus. Word 3

The Light freed Lazarus. And he, in response to His call, hastened so much that he came out of the tomb wrapped in burial shrouds, he - during the four days of his stay in the tomb - was touched by corruption, already becoming food for worms, having lost the fullness of his bodily beauty and, as a witness of decay, bringing with him from the tomb a stench. But the fragrance of life, smelling the dead man, stopped the decomposition that had begun in him: the coffin became a source of life for him who lay in it, and as if from his mother’s womb, and not from the coffin, Lazarus emerged newly created. Oh, wonderful miracle! The coffin gave birth to life for us a man, wrapped, like a baby, in swaddling clothes. The word of the Lord, which reached the ears of the dead man, removed him from the coffin along with the burial shrouds. "Lazarus! “Get out” (John 11:43), - the Savior cried, - and following His word the dead man immediately arose, all the members of his body restored each of their functions: the eyes began to do their job, the nose took its place, the cheeks took their former appearance, the neck began to support the head on the shoulders, the hands began to act in complete harmony with one another, the harmony of the limbs was restored, the fingers again became flexible, the nerves regained strength, the bones were strengthened, in the muscles and tension was felt in the veins, the brain resumed its work, the skin of the body was refreshed, the hair was strengthened in the roots. But, of course, in reality all this happened much sooner than I conveyed in words. Like a horse (rushes forward) at the sign of the rider, so the dead one, prompted by the word of the Lord, hurried out. "Lazarus! get out!” Without yet saying: get up, he commands you to go out, but he still encourages the one who is lying down to go. Raise him first, and then order the one who has already risen to go. Why, Lord, do You demand that the one lying down come out, but do not mention the fact that he still needs to get up? To the one lying down, He says, I immediately command him to go, so as not to delay his exit with a double command. I don’t tell him: get up and come here, so that he hastens more, having one order - both about the uprising and about the exit. As if inspired by the words of the Master, Lazarus jumped out of the tomb, more like a watchman sitting in the tomb, and not like a dead man. Hell below, as one would expect, having given up the dead man, began to cry out: who is this who awakens with His voice the dead from their graves, as if sleeping? Who is this who violates the ancient law of death? Who is it that awakened the dead with his preaching about the resurrection? Who is it that teaches the buried to return to life? Who is it that snatches my prey from me so easily? Who is it that confuses my ancient dead with His call? The scepter of dominion over people falls out of my hands, I see, the bonds of death are already losing their power. Elijah once raised a dead man to the joy of his mother; Elisha stole my dead from me twice. And now This One has taken up arms against me even more strongly because of the dead, taking away from me even those who have undergone decay, so that I fear whether I will retain power even over the already decayed dead. The dead man whom I considered my prey has already been taken from me. Above me, a four-day-old corpse triumphs in victory, rejoicing among the living in funeral attire. They will trample me underfoot after the dead man ran away from me. In fact, who will now be afraid of me, defeated by the already stinking dead and who has become, as it were, the guardian of the dead, pledged to me for a while? It was as if Lazarus was in the tomb as a pledge, like some gold thing given as a pledge with seals placed on it: tied with burial shrouds, he was laid in the tomb, and tied with them, he was brought back to life. After all, the Jewish people have little faith and are not convinced even by great miracles. They could say to Lazarus in the same way as to the one who was once healed of blindness (who claimed): it is he, (and they assured): no, it is not him (John 9:9). And just as someone who is obliged to return a thing taken as collateral, anticipating suspicion on the part of the pawnbroker, protects the seal placed so that the appearance of the seals convinces the pawnbroker, so the Lord Christ, having returned to the Jews from the dead Lazarus, who was among the dead as a collateral for four days, leaves bandages on him, as if as a seal, so that those who unbind them can be convinced that it is the same one whom they buried, and not someone else. But the blindness of unbelief is incorrigible: recognizing the dead man, they were filled with envy of the miracle and conceived evil advice. “The chief priests,” says (the evangelist), “decided to kill Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead, because for his sake many of the Jews came and believed in Jesus” (John 12:10, 9, 11). To him be glory forever. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria.