the journey towards the cross

Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann
Saturday of Lazarus

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