Lazarus Saturday

موضوع: Lazarus Saturday السبت أبريل 04, 2015 6:54 pm

Lazarus Saturday

Lazarus is a man who lived in the town of Bethany ("Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha", John 11:1). The sisters are immediately identified: "Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill."

So the sisters sent word to Jesus that the one he loved was ill. Jesus tarried where he was, and when he arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days, and Martha reproached him. (However, it should be noted that Jesus had only delayed his travel by two days, implying that even if he had set out immediately, Lazarus would have died.)

When Jesus assured her Lazarus would rise, she took his meaning for the resurrection on Judgment Day, to which he replied, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die" (John 11:25–26). In the presence of a crowd of Jewish mourners, Jesus had the stone rolled away from the tomb and bid Lazarus to come out, and so he did, still wrapped in his grave-cloths. Jesus then called for His followers (friends and family alike) to remove the grave-cloths.

The narrator claims many other Jews were convinced of Jesus' divinity after visiting Lazarus, but says no more of the individual. The miracle, the longest coherent narrative in John aside from the Passion, is the climax of John's "signs" and leads directly to the decision of Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin to kill Jesus.

: Definition

Lazarus Saturday is a part of the Easter celebrations of the Eastern Orthodox Church and commemorates the time when Jesus is believed to have raised Lazarus from the dead, signalling Jesus' powers over life and death. It is the only time during that the resurrection service of Sunday is celebrated on a different day of the week.

The focus of the services is not so much Jesus' act of raising Lazarus from the dead but rather Jesus' role as Christ, redeemer of humanity and messiah. Lazarus is thus used as a sort of symbol for humanity - imprisoned and enslaved by death and sin, waiting to be freed from our tomb by the healing, saving power of Jesus. Just as Jesus stood outside Lazarus' tomb and called to him to come out and join him, Jesus stands before humanity and calls upon people to leave behind their sins and join him.

(TROPARION (TONE 1

O Christ God, when Thou didst raise Lazarus from the dead, before Thy Passion, Thou didst confirm the universal resurrection. Wherefore, we, like children, carry the insignia of triumph and victory, and cry to Thee, O Vanquisher of death: Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He Who cometh in the Name of the Lord.

موضوع: رد: Lazarus Saturday السبت أبريل 04, 2015 8:24 pm

موضوع: رد: Lazarus Saturday الثلاثاء أبريل 07, 2015 2:55 pm

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