FAITH FILES
DO you know that today is Lazarus Saturday? “What’s that?” you may ask. Many Catholic and Protestant Christians won’t have heard of it, but it’s a prominent festival, often celebrated very colourfully and joyfully, within the Orthodox Church, whether in Greece, Russia, Serbia or elsewhere.
Lazarus Saturday commemorates the day when Jesus’ friend Lazarus was raised from the dead. Historically, Orthodox Christians deem this to have taken place on the day before Palm Sunday, which will be celebrated tomorrow in the Orthodox Church. Yes, Easter has yet to take place in Orthodox circles. It never happens before the commencement of the Jewish Festival of Passover (which started earlier this week) and can fall up to five weeks later than Easter in Catholic and Protestant churches.
The account of Lazarus’ resurrection is given in chapter 11 of St John’s Gospel. There are many things that we can learn from this event. Allow me to highlight three.
First, it shows that, when God appears to turn up late, He’s actually right on time to perform an outstanding miracle that wouldn’t have been so miraculous had He acted earlier. When Jesus first heard that Lazarus was sick,
He delayed going to visit him until he had died. Many people, including Lazarus’ two sisters and the wider circle of family and friends, thought that Jesus was remiss because, had He arrived earlier, He might have been able to heal him.
We might pray for God to intervene in a tough situation that we might be facing, only to lose hope as the situation becomes increasingly desperate and we see no sign of God answering our prayers. For God, however, this makes for a greater miracle, as His power is aptly displayed when the outcome seems completely impossible. So, let’s hold onto hope.
The Lazarus story also shows us that Jesus empathises with our sorrow and suffering, and that He shows pity and compassion towards us. The Gospel account contains the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept.” Jesus is touched by our feelings of grief.
Finally, by raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus showed His power over death, foreshadowing His own death and resurrection, which was soon to take place, and pointing to the day when we, too, will be resurrected if we put our faith in His redemptive work.
Ian Toone, lay member of New
Life Church Derby