Lazarus Saturday: Prelude to Holy Week

Luca Giordano (–1705) Raising of Lazarus, painting circa 1675, public domain . 

I knew the story of Lazarus from Sunday school, but learned about Lazarus Saturday, last week. 

• The Lazarus Jesus loved was His friend from Bethany, the other a beggar in His parable.

• 4-day Lazaus His friend is sometimes called because Jesus waited 4 days after he died to come.

• But when He came, He exceeded all expectations and gave Lazarus new life.

Jesus will give you new life as well, if you come to Him to rest.

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One of the reasons I never had heard of Lazarus Saturday is that it is an Orthodox holiday not well known among Protestants of the West.

An Archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Church has this to say about the holiday:

The Raising of Lazarus preceded the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ* (4BC-30AD) . One of the great saints of the Russian Orthodox Church from the 19th century, Bishop Innokenty of Kherson, said that this feast day can be referred to as the holiday of friendship. The Lord Jesus Christ, having heard that His friend Lazarus died, said "Lazarus, our friend, has died,”  and hastened to Bethany, despite the danger to His life, for as you know, the Jews had conspired to kill Him.  You can read the rest of his sermon here:  

An asterisk* after a name means the person is in SPIRITUAL LIVES.

The story is one we all know, and is found in the New Testament in the beautiful language of John* (5-100), the disciple Jesus loved: you can read it here:

A short recap -- Lazarus was a friend of Jesus who lived with his sisters, Mary and Martha, in Bethany, about two miles from Jerusalem.  When Lazarus got sick, Jesus was out of town, and the sisters urgently sent Him a message to come at once.  He waited four days, and Lazarus died. 

His sisters were angry with Jesus because they knew He could have healed their brother. When they took Him to Lazarus’ tomb, He wept in the shortest voice in the Bible, and the mourning Jews said, “Behold, how He loved him.”

Jesus ordered the stone rolled away from the tomb and spoke these words:  Lazarus, come forth. John 11:44 

And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go. 

This miracle had a great impact on the Jewish leaders:

 Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. 

John 11:48  If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. 

John 11:53  Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death. 

This is commemorated in Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week.  Of course Holy Week as we know it was not practiced in the Bible.  There Believers continued to celebrate the Jewish Passover, but moved the celebration to Sunday, the day He arose from the dead. 

The first evidence we have of this Holy Week come from Egeria, a Hispano-Roman Christian woman, who gave us a detailed account of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about 381/2–384.

In it she mentions Palm Sunday, the keystone in developing the practice of Holy Week that now looks like this: 

• Palm Sunday

• Holy Monday

• Holy Tuesday

• Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday)

• Maundy Thursday

• Good Friday

• Holy Saturday

Of course, Easter or Resurrection Sunday is the climax of this, but Lazarus Saturday is its introduction. The holiday has been practices regularly throughout the centuries in Orthodox Churches and has a special litany and prayers:

“By raising Lazarus from the dead before Your Passion,/ You confirmed the universal resurrection, O Christ God!” goes the Troparion, or main hymn, for the feast. “Like the children with palms of victory,/ We cry out to You, O Vanquisher of Death,/ Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord!” Even though it is still a week before Easter and the Passion and Death of Jesus lie ahead, the prevailing mood is one of joy.

The antiquity of this commemoration is demonstrated by the homilies of St. John Chrysostom (349–407), St Augustine of Hippo (354–430), and others. In the 7th and 8th centuries, special hymns and canons for the feast were written by St. Andrew of Crete (650-712), St. Cosmas of Maium (675-760) and St. John Damascene (675-749), which are still sung to this day.[

Special foods are prepared for the holiday that remind me of the pancakes and sausages we Anglcans make for Mardi Gras. The Lazarus Saturday custom is the baking of pastries called lazarákia, or “Little Lazaruses,” which originated in either Greece or Cyprus. where Eastern tradition says he became a bishop. Today, Cyprus is the site of the Cathedral of St. Lazarus.

What more do we know about this man who was so belovéd by Jesus?

• The Bible tells us he was at the feast with Jesus at Bethany when Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with a costly ointment and dried them with her hair. This so angered Judas Iscariot that he went to the Pharisees and betrayed his Master for 30 pieces of silver. This was six days before the Passover, the day we call Holy Wednesday, or Spy Wednesday, so named for Judas’ betrayal.

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• Most likely, Lazarus lived years after Jesus died to always carry the mark of a resurrected man.  (Jesus resurrected two other people but it was right after they had died).  What an honor for Lazarus to not only be resurrected from the dead but also be the last major miracle Jesus ever performed. Lazarus must have spent the rest of his life telling the story to all who would listen. Those who hated Jesus despised his story, but those who loved Him had resurrection hope in the form of a man named Lazarus.

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• While there is no further mention of Lazarus in the Bible, the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions offer varying accounts of the later events of his life. Here are some of them:

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• He is closely associated with Cyprus, where he is said to have become the first bishop of Kition (Larnaka), and Provence, where he is said to have been the first bishop of Marseille.

• An Eastern Orthodox Church tradition says that Lazarus was forced to flee Judea because of rumoured plots against his life and came to Cyprus. There, he was appointed by Barnabas (1st century) and Paul the Apostle* (5-67) as the first bishop of Kition. He lived there for thirty more years and was buried there for the second and last time after his death.

• Another story says that when he was made bishop, the Virgin Mary presented him with the bishop's robes she had woven herself.

• According to another tradition, Lazarus never smiled during the thirty years after his resurrection, worried by the sight of unredeemed souls he had seen during his four-day stay in Hell. The only exception happened when, seeing someone stealing a pot, he smilingly said: "the clay steals the clay."

• In the West, a medieval tradition (centered in Provence), Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were "put out to sea by the Jews hostile to Christianity in a vessel without sails, oars, or helm, and after a miraculous voyage landed in Provence at a place called today the Saintes-Maries." The family is then said to separate and go in different parts of southeastern Gaul to preach; Lazarus goes to Marseille. Converting many people to Christianity there, he became the first Bishop of Marseille.

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• During the persecution of Domitian, he was imprisoned and beheaded in a cave beneath the prison Saint-Lazare. His body was later translated to Autun, where he was buried in the Autun Cathedral, which was dedicated to Lazarus as Saint Lazare. However, the inhabitants of Marseille claim to be in possession of his head, which they still venerate.[

Today, Lazarus is commemorated in the Calendars of some Anglican provinces. Lazarus is remembered (with Martha and Mary) under the title "Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, Companions of Our Lord", on 29 July in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival.

What is important in Jesus's* miracle of raising Lazarus is the explicit identity the Lord gives Himself: I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 

Joh 11:26  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

This is the question every Believer must affirm. The first phrase is on my parents' tombstone, and we believe we shall live together again. Jesus goes further by saying if we live and believe in Him we shall never die:

The Resurrection of Lazarus Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) -Wikimedia Commons

John Calvin* (1509-1564) wrote: "not only did Christ give a remarkable proof of his Divine power in raising Lazarus, but he likewise placed before our eyes a lively image of our future resurrection."

Jakob Abbadie (1654 –1727) said that Jesus had intentionally delayed his return to Bethany for "four days, that it might not be said, he [Lazarus] was not really dead."

In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) saw that the Gospel story of the raising of Lazarus, "shows Christ's absolute power over life and death and reveals His nature as true man and true God" and that "Jesus' lordship over death does not prevent him from showing sincere compassion over the pain of this separation."

What testimonies these are to Lazarus Saturday being the festival of friendsheip and the promise of resurrection.

Let's think of Lazarus tomorrow and of his best Friend who said, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. - John 10:10

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Jesus was standing beside a grave,

Weeping, but knowing His power to save;

Take ye away now the stone from the door,

And Christ will His power display.

Refrain

They rolled the stone away,

For Christ was there that day,

And called upon a man to leave the darkened grave.

We’ll roll the stone away,

For He is here today,

And waits to show His mighty power,

His power to save.

Jesus is speaking to you in song,

Asking why you have delayed so long?

While men are lying in grave-clothes of sin,

For whom Jesus died on the cross.

Refrain

Jesus is standing by hearts of sin,

Knocking and saying, Let Me come in.

Rouse, then, ye sleeper, and open the door,

For Jesus has power to save.

Refrain

Words: Ora S. Gray, 1908.