The joy that permeates and enlightens the service of Lazarus Saturday
stresses one major theme: the forthcoming victory of Christ over Hades.
"Hades" is the Biblical term for Death and its universal power, for
inescapable darkness that swallows all life and with its shadow poisons
the whole world. But now — with Lazarus’ resurrection —
"death begins to tremble." A decisive duel between Life and Death begins
giving us the key to the entire liturgical mystery of Pascha. Already
in the fourth century Lazarus’ Saturday was called the "announcement of
Pascha." For, indeed, it announces and anticipates the wonderful light
and peace of the next — The Great — Saturday, the day of life-giving
Tomb.
Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, personifies the whole of mankind
and also each man, as Bethany — the home of Lazarus, — stands for the
whole world — the home of man. For each man was created as a friend of
God and was called to this friendship: the knowledge of God, the
communion with Him, the sharing of life with Him: "in Him was Life and
the Life was the light of men" (John 1:4). And yet this Friend, whom
Jesus loves, whom He has created in love, is destroyed, annihilated by a
power which God has not created: death. In His own world, the fruit of
His love, wisdom and beauty, God encounters a power that destroys His
work and annihilates His design. The world is but lamentation and
sorrow, complaint and revolt. How is this possible? How did this happen?
These are the questions implied in John’s slow and detailed narrative
of Jesus’ progression towards the grave of His friend. And once there,
Jesus wept, says the Gospel (John 11:35). Why did He weep if He knew
that moments later He would call Lazarus back to life? Byzantine
hymnographers fail to grasp the true meaning of these tears. "As man
Thou weepest, and as God Thou raisest the one in the grave..." They
arrange the actions of Christ according to His two natures: the Divine
and the human. But the Orthodox Church teaches that all the actions of
Christ are both Divine and human, are actions of the one and same
person, the Incarnate Son of God. He who weeps is not only man but also
God, and He who calls Lazarus out of the grave is not God alone but also
man. And He weeps because He contemplates the miserable state of the
world, created by God, and the miserable state of man, the king of
creation... "It stinketh," say the Jews trying to prevent Jesus from
approaching the corps, and this "it stinketh" can be applied to the
whole of creation. God is Life and He called the man into this Divine
reality of life and "he stinketh." At the grave of Lazarus Jesus
encounters Death — the power of sin and destruction, of hatred and
despair. He meets the enemy of God. And we who follow Him are now
introduced into the very heart of this hour of Jesus, the hour,
which He so often mentioned. The forthcoming darkness of the Cross, its
necessity, its universal meaning, all this is given in the shortest
verse of the Gospel — "and Jesus wept."
We understand now that it is because He wept, i.e., loved His friend
Lazarus and had pity on him, that He had the power of restoring life to
him. The power of Resurrection is not a Divine "power in itself’," but
the power of love, or rather, love as power. God is Love, and it is love
that creates life; it is love that weeps at the grave and it is,
therefore, love that restores life... This is the meaning of these
Divine tears. They are tears of love and, therefore, in them is the
power of life. Love, which is the foundation of life and its source, is
at work again recreating, redeeming, restoring the darkened life of man:
"Lazarus, come forth!" And this is why Lazarus Saturday is the real
beginning of both: the Cross, as the supreme sacrifice of love, and the
Common Resurrection, as the ultimate triumph of love.
"Christ — the Joy, Truth, Light and the Life of all and the
resurrection of the world, in His love appeared to those on earth and
was the image of Resurrection, granting to all Divine forgiveness."
Archpriest Alexander Schmemann
The Christian Way, 1961
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