775 SPURIA. A ...must be a servant, not enjoy the Lord’s prerogative. The Lord, as He had promised, rose on the third day; this man, however, rises on the fourth: for the servant is one thing, the Lord is another. They say to Him: "Lord, he has been dead four days, he now stinks." These things are small before God. The bones were not yet dry, not yet stripped of flesh and sinews, as once was the army of the dead lying on the ground before Ezekiel, and, deprived of everything—soul, sense, protection, and vivifying spirit—it stood at the monument, destined now to give a clear example of the future resurrection. Martha was silent, and the stone was removed: all were in suspense of mind, the dead living, and perhaps Death himself B was astonished, since the gates of death had already been undone. And first the Lord Jesus begins with glorification. He lifted up, He says, His eyes to heaven, indicating the manner of His descent, thanking the Father for our sake and saying: "Father, I thank Thee, because Thou hast heard me." Though He possessed the power of life within Himself, He does this because Mary and Martha had said to Him: "We know that whatsoever you shall ask of God, God will give it to thee." Therefore, seeing their weaker mind, He says: "You surely know that whatsoever I shall ask of the Father, He will give to me": approach me, therefore, in mind [as you approach] the Father. And then He says, "I thank Thee, Father, because Thou hast heard me. I knew that Thou hearest me always, but because of those standing by I said it." Do you see how He has no need of prayer, but does this on account of the unbelief of those present? "Thou heardst me," He says, "always." Do not ask when: for however much we investigate, we cannot comprehend. As the Son according to nature, You pray; yet You mentioned the Father, giving honor to Him, so that You might exhibit the concord of the Son and the Father to those who are ignorant. But when He had confirmed faith and made the mind of the listeners more certain, He at last came to the work. "Lazarus, come forth." He did not repeat the command so that a corpse alone might rise, and lest the crowd of the dead should begin an unseemly C rush. I seek one dead man, lest you all come—for that time has not yet arrived when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and they that have heard shall live. Yet let one come forth in the meantime: let one be loosed on account of his friendship with the Only-Begotten, one is what I require to be bound. Let no one in the lower world resist, not the invisible doorkeeper, not the hard jailer, not the infernal key-bearers, who are always devising how to seize. Learn, Hades, first to give. You, however, O hell, be silent, be hushed, suffering nothing harsh, obeying the Lord, attempting nothing, for man is already fleeing from your thresholds. "Lazarus, come forth." By my command, conquer death, conquer death, with hell despoiled. Still bound, though even with you unwilling I am crowned, I remain. Lazarus came out bound and walking; he came out entirely bound, and moving as a whole. For he was shackled from head to foot, according to the custom of the region. He was not yet entirely outside of death and burial. D Again Jesus gives a new command: "Loose him, and let him go." Why is he who escaped death, who subverted the infernal custody, not loosed by Him himself? You loose him, you who recently bound him, so that you may recognize the signs of your own bonds. But when the Pharisees heard these things, they entered into a new council, saying: "What do we, for this man does such signs?" (John 11.47). Great crimes: at the raising of the dead, death is destroyed, and Lazarus rises from the dead: the Jews, however, are strangled in their soul. Do not, therefore, enter into an imperfect council, but add the reason for the crime, saying: "What do we, for after a few days the sun will be darkened above, and the earth will tremble below, not bearing the deeds done; the veil within the temple will be rent; the crowd of the dead will return to life?" Say again: "What do we, for the temple is being dissolved, for the cult is ceasing, for the city is being burned, for we are being cast out, and others are being appointed heirs in our stead?" What do we, for all things are being transformed—prophets, apostles, priesthood, fasting, celebration, cult? and God will admit these. Be anxious about these, enter into council about these. For your words are useless: the sentence remains; for the word which you bring forth does not remain in you. Once, therefore, has God given to those to whom He pleased, that they might always keep a feast, always a celebration, and that the celebration might be renewed each year in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
ON THE FOUR-DAY LAZARUS II
Beloved, just as a mother who loves her offspring is delighted when she offers her breast to the infant, as the son sucks the tender nourishment of milk: but when the curd of milk has solidified into cheese, it blocks the channels of the breast, then the little boy cries, and the mother is tormented, always having the desire to feed, but seeing that the nourishment proposed does not come through: so also were we delighted on the previous day as we moved the breast of the mind toward you, while you were sucking the milk of the word; but when the cloud of forgetfulness came over the mind and cut off the word, then you also were indignant, as being deprived of the sentences of evangelical dogmas; and we took it grievously, while imbued with the zeal of speaking, when we saw your mind overwhelmed by oblivion. But perhaps this happened to us so that we might know that "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, nor of him that pursueth, but of God that showeth mercy" (Rom. 9.16). Come therefore, since God gives grace to those who speak, not because of the dignity of the speaker, but because of the necessity of the listeners, having prayed to Him, let us draw a draught of doctrine according to our power from the reading just now made to you from the Gospel. "There was," He says, "a certain man sickly from Bethany, from the village of Mary and Martha her sister. And Mary was she who anointed the Lord with the ointment, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Jesus therefore said: This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it" (John 11). ...to death, but for the glory of God: it is not a sickness, but a good message; it is not a sickness, but security. O sickness, the medicine of the sick, the guide of faith, the adversary of death, the avenger of the devil, the prince of salvation! O sickness, the foundation of virtue, the teacher of faith, the dispenser of piety, the builder of the Churches of God! O sickness, which puts to flight the fever of the soul, and bedews it with the moisture of baptism, and blankets the soul in splendid garments! O sickness, providing celestial bread, the best lamp of faith, the snare of the devil, and the seal of man! "When He heard," He says, "Jesus then indeed stayed in the same place two days" (John 11.6). Why was it necessary that, having heard this, the Lord should stay there, and why did He not immediately betake Himself to the sick man? But He was waiting altogether for the death of Lazarus, so that upon his death He might give greater faith to those watching by means of miracles. But after these things, Jesus says to the disciples: "Lazarus our friend sleepeth; but I go that I may wake him out of sleep" (ibid. v. 11). For truly the death of men is considered a sleep by the Lord. "I go that I may wake him out of sleep." Why so? Can You not, while staying here, raise the dead? But the Jews would not receive the grace in my absence: for perhaps, with him rising, they would think that Lazarus returned to life by some accident. I therefore will go, so that, with me present, those who have become spectators of my miracles, and receiving grace from me, may obtain firm faith. "Lazarus our friend sleepeth: but I go that I may wake him out of sleep." But the disciples hearing said: "Lord, if he sleep, he shall be saved" (Ibid. v. 12). They spoke not so piously as they spoke like doctors. For excessive sleep harms the lethargic, but fevers indeed resolve it more than sweat. Because therefore the disciples thought the Lord was speaking of sleep, He said...
O death, full of life! O death, the solver of death, the leader of salvation, the resurrection of the fallen, the rest of those who toil, the strength of the sick, the refreshment of the just! O death, the overthrow of the devil, the destruction of demons, the renewal of the first-formed Adam! O death, the partner of joy, the announcer of incorruption, the dancer of gladness! But that I may cut my discourse short, Jesus comes to Bethany; the sisters of Lazarus met Him, and falling at the feet of the Lord, they wept and said: A Lord, if You had been here, our brother would not have died (Ibid. v. 21). Was He not there? In body, indeed, He was not there; but in divinity, He was not only there, but also in the heavens. For how did He know when Lazarus died, if He were not present in the invisible power of His divinity? And they said: Lord, if You had been here, our brother would not have died. The Lord said to them: Believe, and you shall see the glory of God; teaching that faith is the leader of good works. And seeing them weeping, and the Jews who were present, He groaned in the spirit and troubled Himself, and said: Where have you laid him? What is this "He groaned in the spirit"? Wait, beloved, and after a little while you shall find the solution to what is sought. He troubled Himself, not as we are troubled by cowardice or grief, but He Himself troubled Himself, and said: Where have you laid him? Did He then not know where he was buried, He who knew when he had died? But He mixes human words with divine miracles, to show that He was also man, B as the prophet also says: And He is man, and who shall know Him? He prefixed this to signify that He is also something else, which is God. Where have you laid him? And Mary says: Come and see, Lord. And Jesus wept (John 11:35). What need was there to weep, when He was about to raise him after a little while? But Jesus wept, that He might show the sympathy and philanthropy He has towards those of our own nature; Jesus wept, that He might teach (by deed rather than by word) that one should weep with those who weep; Jesus wept; He wept, but did not mourn, rejecting what is altogether without tears as pitiless and inhuman, and putting aside the love of mourning as ignoble and unmanly; rather, imposing order upon sympathy, He wept. He comes to the cave, and sees a stone lying against the tomb. He orders the Jews who are standing by to roll away the stone from the mouth of the cave. He who says: If you have faith C as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, and it shall come to pass for you (Matt. 17:19): how is it that He now is unable to roll away the stone? But He does this not as though it were impossible, He says, but so that what is happening might not seem to be a phantasm, I command these same Jews to roll away the stone with their own hands, leaving the greatest sign for Myself; that they themselves might be witnesses of the signs performed by Me. Then, after rolling away the stone, Jesus looked up to heaven and said: I thank You, Father, that You have heard Me. But when did He pray? Now take, beloved, the solution to the saying sought by you a little before—for when He groaned in the spirit, then He prayed. And having said these things, He cried with a loud voice, saying, Lazarus, come forth. And immediately the dead man came out, bound D as to his hands and feet with graveclothes. O power of the voice, which rent the bars, shattered the gates of brass, broke in pieces the iron levers, cast down the devil, abolished death, and raised the dead! O power of the voice, which gathered the separated members into one and set them upright, and brought what was from non-existence into existence! O power of the voice, which wakened the four-day-dead as if from sleep, and led him forth from the tomb, bound in graveclothes as if he were unencumbered and a fast runner! Fix, beloved, your mind upon the voice, and you will find it is the same Word that said in the creation of the world, Let there be light, and there was light. Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, and they were, saying the same even now: Lazarus, come forth. And the humors of the flesh that had flowed away filled the sockets again, and the fallen hairs recognized their proper order and were implanted in the limbs. Lazarus, come forth; and the dead man arose, and the four-day-old was as if he had not died at the beginning. Lazarus, come forth; and the soul was pulled back from the nether world, with no devil gainsaying, with no death wrestling against it; and rejoicing, it recognized its own dwelling. Having seen this divine work of miracles, beloved, do not doubt the resurrection; let Lazarus be a mirror to you, and having seen yourself in him, believe in the rising. For the same voice shall raise all of us, as also the Apostle says: For He shall sound the trumpet, and the dead shall rise incorruptible (1 Cor. 15:52); by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
On the Four-Day Lazarus. III
He loosed Lazarus; but although called thus, he hastened, so as to show forth a race while wrapped in swaddling clothes, he who on the fourth day having decayed in the tomb, and having been ravaged by worms from the bowels, and having had the whole harmony of the body broken, and possessing the stench of the tomb as a witness of decay. But the fragrance that smelled the dead one refashioned the rot of the bowels; the tomb became a womb for the one lying there, and as if sown in a womb, and not in a tomb, Lazarus leapt forth new-born. O new wonder-working! A tomb carried forth a man for us into life, wrapped in the burial clothes, just as an infant in swaddling clothes. For the voice of the Master, having been made known to the dead man, pulled him from the tomb along with the swaddling clothes. Lazarus, He says, come forth; and at the word the dead man immediately came forth, and the members in the tomb ran together to one another; the eye returned to its proper order, the nose took its proper place, the cheeks hastened to their former shape, the neck was knit together with the shoulders and head, the union of the hands prepared for movement, the harmonies of the joints were joined together, the order of the fingers was settled, the connections of the nerves were bound, the nature of bones was reclothed, the arteries were stretched along with the veins, marrow was molded, membranes were woven, and hairs were sprouted. I am slow in speech in describing the movement of the members. Just as a horse from a signal, so the dead man, pricked by the voice of the Master, leaped up. Lazarus, come forth. Before saying, "Arise," He orders the departure; he is still lying down, yet He urges him toward the race: "Arise first, and then to him who has arisen, order him to run." Why, Master, do You preach a departure to the one who is lying down before the resurrection? "I order the race to the one lying down," He says, "so that by not occupying the dead man with two things, I would waste time on the departure. I do not say to him, 'Rise, and come forth,' so that he might run more quickly, having received one deadline for both the rising and the race." From this, Lazarus leapt out of the tomb as if winged, rather as a guardian than a dead man, sitting beside the tomb. And Hades from below, as it seems, delivering up the dead man, cried out: "Who is this who by a voice raises the dead from the tombs as if they were sleeping? Who is this who is dissolving the ancient laws of the dead? Who is this who has set such a proclamation for the dead to return? Who is this who is accustoming those who have been buried to run back to life? Who is this who is loosening my dead so easily? Who is this who is tearing away my ancient dead by a command? The scepter of my tyranny over men, as I see, is gone, and the prison of death is henceforth rotten to me. Elijah raised a dead man as a favor to a woman, demonstrating it; Elisha coming after was made a double snatch-robber of my dead; now this one has campaigned against me more bitterly as a helper for the dead, stealing my putrid dead, and I am in danger henceforth of having no power even over the decayed dead. For I have been despoiled of a dead man whom I had consumed; a four-day body triumphs over me, dancing together with the living in visible form; I shall be trampled hereafter along with the swaddling clothes, by a dead man having escaped from me. For who ..."