ACC ~ John 11 v38 - 44

OVERVIEW:

Tragedies such as sickness and death cause even our Lord to groan (PETER CHRYSOLOGUS). When Jesus was far from the tomb, he groaned in spirit, but when he neared the tomb, the groan was compressed inward (ORIGEN) as an indication of the turmoil he was going through inside (CYRIL). He groans because that is what faith does when it sees something that has gone wrong and is not right (AUGUSTINE). Jesus then arrives at the tomb—the prison from which Lazarus will be freed (PETER CHRYSOLOGUS).

The stone in front of the cave, the stench of the body, all indicate there was no opportunity for deception (HIPPOLYTUS). The stench of Lazarus’s body highlights how miraculous the resurrection was (THEODORE). In allegorizing concerning the stench of Lazarus—and allegorizing need not deny its historicity (AUGUSTINE)—parallels are drawn between sin and death, repentance and resurrection (AUGUSTINE). Jesus commands the stone to be removed, but Martha’s words temporarily intervene (ORIGEN), only to give way to faith—her faith as one living that trusts Jesus on behalf of Lazarus, who is dead (CYRIL). As they roll away the stone, the Storehouse of life approaches the tomb of death (ATHANASIUS).

Jesus’ eyes focus upward, taking our attention away from daily concerns to what is above (ORIGEN). Jesus knows that the Father has already anticipated his prayer, which is why he offers a prayer of thanks rather than petition (ORIGEN). Our Lord’s prayer also makes clear to the crowd that he never acts against the will of his Father (CHRYSOSTOM) and lets us know that those who truly pray are always heard (ORIGEN). Christ did not need to pray (HILARY), but because they had leveled a charge of blasphemy against him, the tomb becomes a court of justice where Jesus is vindicated (HIPPOLYTUS). His prayer knocks on the doors of hell, demanding the release of Lazarus from the grip of Tartarus, who in futility appeals to heaven as the Trinity commands Lazarus to be returned (PETER CHRYSOLOGUS).

Lazarus’s friend and Lord commands him to come out (ANDREW). The voice longing for Lazarus frees him from his prison (HESYCHIUS). It is a loud, singular voice that calls to his friend by name (APOLLINARIS). Had he not called him by name, the great power of Jesus would have summoned all those in their graves (MAXIMINUS). The voice that speaks also spoke at creation (ATHANASIUS), and will speak again when it calls us out of our graves at the general resurrection (GREGORY OF NYSSA). When Jesus raises Lazarus through prayer, he demonstrates his own power while also showing his oneness with the Father (CHRYSOSTOM).

As Lazarus is bid to come forth, so also are those with a guilty conscience (GREGORY THE GREAT, AUGUSTINE). The unbinding of the linens that bound Lazarus parallels our being unbound from the deadness of sin (IRENAEUS, ORIGEN), as the church and its ministers are charged with the task of unloosing sinners from their sins (AUGUSTINE). There are many like Lazarus trapped in their own tombs until released by the words of Jesus (ORIGEN). The resurrection of Lazarus teaches us that death has lost its kingdom forever (BASIL OF SELEUCIA). We can now look forward to Lazarus offering the toast at the resurrection feast he has already sampled when we together with him celebrate Christ’s return (PETER CHRYSOLOGUS).

11:38 | Jesus Comes to the Tomb

GROANING IN THE FACE OF DEATH

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS Spirit groans, so that flesh would come back to life. Life groans, so that death would be put to flight. God groans, so that humanity would rise. Pardon groans, lest the verdict be unfavorable. Christ groans as he subdues death, because one who snatches an unparalleled victory over an enemy cannot but groan. But with regard to the fact that he said that he “groaned again,” he does groan again in order to provide evidence of a twofold resurrection, since at Christ’s voice just as those dead in body are raised to life from their graves, so too those dead in faithfulness rise to a life of faith. SERMON 65.1. [1]

[1] FC 109:260*.

TWO DIFFERENT GROANINGS OF CHRIST

ORIGEN When he was far from the tomb, he groaned in spirit. But when he comes near to the tomb, he no longer groans in spirit but compresses his groaning in himself. … Again he rebukes the feeling that we may learn that he has become unchangeably human like ourselves. FRAGMENT 84 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN. [1]

[1] AEG 4:173*; GCS 10(4):549.

THE STRUGGLE WITHIN

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA Here we understand the groaning as if it were the will struggling with a sort of movement according to its power, both because he rather sternly reproved his grief and [because of] the tears that were about to be shed from his grief. For, as God he, in the way of a master, reproves his humanity, looking for it to be strong in sorrowful circumstances. … “He groaned,” which means that through the outward action of his body he indicated his inner distress. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 7. [1]

[1] LF 48:124*.

CHRIST GROANS BECAUSE FAITH GROANS

AUGUSTINE Why did Christ trouble himself except to intimate to you how you should be troubled when you are weighed down and crushed by so great a mass of iniquity? For here you have been looking to yourself, seeing your own guilt, doing an accounting of yourself. I have done this, and God has spared me. I have committed this, and he has still stayed with me. I have heard the gospel and despised it. I have been baptized and returned again to my old habits. What am I doing? Where am I going? How shall I escape? When you speak in this way, Christ is already groaning, for your faith is groaning. In the voice of one who groans like this, the hope of that person’s rising again comes to light. If this kind of a faith is within, Christ is there too, groaning. For if there is faith in us, Christ is in us. … Why did he groan and trouble himself, but to intimate that the faith of one who has just cause to be displeased with himself should be, in a sense, groaning over the accusation of wicked deeds so that the habit of sinning may give way to the vehemence of penitential sorrow? TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 49.19. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:276**.

THE CAVE AS PRISON

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS It would have sufficed for him to have said that he had come to the tomb. Why is it that the Evangelist makes special mention of the cave? Certainly it is a cave, where the devil’s thievery has lodged human beings. It is a cave where a woman’s wiles buried the man, a cave where the greediness of death imprisoned God’s handiwork. “And a stone had been placed in front of it.” The door of hard death was bolted harder still by a very hard stone. What good does weeping at a grave do since the voice of the one weeping does not penetrate such hard and thick barriers? Christians, let us weep before God for our sins, and let us not weep with the pagans before the dead who do not hear us. SERMON 65.2. [1]

[1] FC 109:260-61. Origen also compares Lazarus coming out of the cave to Joseph’s release from the well as a prefiguring of the Resurrection. See Fragment 84 on the Gospel of John.

11:39 | Odor of Death After Stone’s Removal

NO CHANCE FOR DECEPTION

HIPPOLYTUS Are you—as someone who has bestowed the kind of power on your apostles that can remove mountains [1] —are you not able to roll away a small stone from the entrance of the cave? But he chose not to roll the stone away because the spectators did not believe. Otherwise, they might have been able to say that what he did relied on trickery and deceiving the eyes. They would say there had been an apparently dead man laid in the grave, and that [Jesus] wanted to make it look like he called and the other heard. And so now he leads them to the grave, so that after they have rolled away the stone, the foul smell might reach them and furnish them with testimony that the man was actually dead. And then, once they believe Lazarus has died, they will no longer doubt his resurrection. The Lord had already planned for this when he came. Notice what immediately follows. Martha approaches the stone and says, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead for four days.” But the ever-living one, who is fully conscious of his power, says, “I chose to learn this from you, [Martha]. In fact, repeat what you said about him, ‘By this time he stinks.’ Repeat it, proclaiming that his resurrection is real.” His death was established several times in order that the fact of his resurrection might be established. … He commanded the Jews to roll away the stone with their own hands, reserving for himself the greatest sign so that they might be witnesses of the sign done by him. ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN AND THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. [2]

[1] Mt 17:20.

[2] AEG 4:173-74*; GCS 1 2:222-23, 225.

FLESH AND SOUL OF LAZARUS ARE RESURRECTED

TERTULLIAN In the case of Lazarus, which we may take as the most outstanding instance of a resurrection, the flesh lay prostrate in weakness, almost putrid in the dishonor of its decay. The flesh smelled of corruption, and yet it was as flesh that Lazarus rose again—with his soul, no doubt. But that soul was incorrupt. Nobody had wrapped it in its linen swathes. Nobody had deposited it in a grave. Nobody had yet perceived its “smell,” nobody for four days had seen it “sown.” Well, now, this entire condition, this whole end of Lazarus, is indeed what the flesh of all humanity is still experiencing, but no one’s soul is experiencing it. That substance, therefore, to which the apostle’s whole description clearly refers, [1] of which he clearly speaks, must be both the natural (or animate) body when it is sown and the spiritual body when it is raised again. ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH 53.3-4. [2]

[1] See 1 Cor 15.

[2] ANF 3:586*; CCL 2:998.

THE STENCH HIGHLIGHTS THE EXTENT OF THE MIRACLE

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” These words were spoken by the woman who doubted, but they also referred to the greatness of the miracle to be performed. Indeed, the more they knew that his body was putrefying and was in a state of mutation according to nature, the more the miracle to be performed for Lazarus appeared to be extraordinary. So the Lord by reproving her said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” From this it is evident that she was not free from doubts even when she had said the words mentioned above and seemed to assent to and believe them. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 5.11.39-40. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:228.

ALLEGORIZING DOES NOT HAVE TO DENY HISTORICITY

AUGUSTINE Although according to the gospel history, we hold that Lazarus was really raised to life, yet I do not doubt that his resurrection is an allegory as well. We do not, because we allegorize facts, however, lose our belief in them as facts. ON EIGHTY-THREE VARIED QUESTIONS 65. [1]

[1] FC 70:136**; PL 35:1746.

THREE DEATHS, THREE RESURRECTIONS

AUGUSTINE If, then, the Lord in the greatness of his grace and mercy raises our souls to life so that we may not die forever, we may well understand that those three dead persons whom he raised in the body have some figurative significance of that resurrection of the soul that is effected by faith. He raised up the ruler of the synagogue’s daughter, while still lying in the house. [1] He raised up the widow’s young son, while being carried outside the gates of the city. [2] And he raised up Lazarus when four days in the grave. Let each one pay attention to his own soul: in sinning he dies; sin is the death of the soul. But sometimes sin is committed only in thought. You have felt delight in what is evil, you have assented to its commission, and you have sinned. That assent has killed you, but the death is internal because the evil thought had not yet ripened into action. The Lord intimated that he would raise such a soul to life in raising that girl who had not yet been carried out for burial but was still lying dead in the house as if sin still lay concealed. But if you have not only harbored a feeling of delight in evil but have also done the evil thing, you have, so to speak, carried the dead outside the gate: you are already outside and being carried to the tomb. Yet the Lord also raised such a person to life and restored him to his widowed mother. If you have sinned, repent, and the Lord will raise you up and restore you to your mother church. The third example of death is Lazarus. It is a horrible kind of death and is distinguished as a habit of wickedness. For it is one thing to fall into sin, another to form the habit of sinning. The one who falls into sin and immediately submits to correction will be quickly restored to life, for he is not yet entangled in the habit, he is not yet laid in the tomb. But whoever has become habituated to sin is buried and has it properly said of him, “he stinks.” For his character, like some horrible smell, begins to be of the worst repute. Such are all who are habituated to crime or abandoned in morals. You say to such a person, “Don’t act like that.” But when will you be listened to by one on whom the earth is thus heaped who is breeding corruption and pressed down with the weight of habit? And yet the power of Christ was not unequal to the task of restoring such a person to life. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 49.3. [3]

[1] See Mk 5:41ff.

[2] See Lk 7:14ff.

[3] NPNF 1 7:271*; CCL 36:420-21. See also Augustine On Eighty-three Varied Questions 65, Sermon 128.14, and Gregory the Great Morals on the Book of Job 4.27.

11:40 | Faith Sees the Glory of God

MARTHA HINDERED THE REMOVAL OF THE STONE

ORIGEN But now, between the words “Take away the stone” and “therefore, they took away the stone,” the words of the dead man’s sister hindered the removal of the stone. And it would not have been taken away at all even later had not Jesus answered and said to her unbelief, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” It is good, then, that nothing intervenes between Jesus’ command and the action enjoined by his bidding. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.17. [1]

[1] FC 89:295; SC 385:66.

THE FAITH OF ONE SERVING TO ASSIST ANOTHER

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA Faith is a truly excellent thing when it is produced from an ardent mind. It has such great power that not only is the believer healed but in fact others also can be healed besides those who believe. For instance … Lazarus is saved by the faith of his sister to whom the Lord said, “If you believe you shall see the glory of God,” which is like saying, “Since Lazarus, being dead, is not able to believe, you then are to fill up the faith that is lacking in him that is dead.” [1] COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 7. [2]

[1] See Cyril’s comment on Jn 11:26 concerning Martha’s “Amen” on behalf of Lazarus.

[2] LF 48:125**.

11:41 | The Stone Removed, Jesus Lifts His Eyes in Prayer

THE STOREHOUSE OF LIFE APPROACHES THE TOMB OF DEATH

ATHANASIUS They took, then, the stone there from the mouth of the tomb. The whole crowd marveled, witnessing the smell of pus of Lazarus, who was decayed. He had rotted so that they were not able to approach within the tomb because of the smell of his body and its decay. But into the midst came Jesus, the storehouse that is full of life, the mouth that is full of sweet odor, the tongue that frightens death, the Mighty One in his commands, the joy of those who are sorrowful, the rising of those who have fallen, the resurrection of the dead, the assembly of the strong, the hope of the hopeless.

He came and stood openly by the mouth of the tomb, with the preparations of salvation in his divine mouth. Now all of the crowd were standing and beholding and wondering what he would do in starting to raise him from the dead. Now the body was lying dead, but God himself was standing over it, looking down on him and grieving for him. HOMILY ON THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. [1]

[1] AJSL 57:267*.

PAY ATTENTION TO THE EYES

ORIGEN We must carefully observe and examine what has been written concerning the position of Jesus’ eyes. … He had changed his thought from his conversation with those below and lifted it up and exalted it, bringing it in prayer to the Father who is over all. … The one who imitates Christ’s prayer, lifting up the eyes of his soul and bringing them up in this way from everyday concerns, memories, thoughts and intention must in this way address to God the great and heavenly words of prayer concerning great and heavenly matters. … If indeed God makes such a promise for those who pray in a worthy manner … that “while you are still speaking, I will say, ‘Here I am,’” [1] what answer do we think our Savior and Lord would receive? COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.23-25, 39. [2]

[1] Is 58:9.

[2] FC 89:296-97, 300**; SC 385:68-70, 78.

11:42 | A Prayer of Thanks to the Father

CHRIST OFFERS THANKS

ORIGEN He was about to pray for the resurrection of Lazarus when the only good God and Father anticipated his prayer and heard the words about to be spoken in his prayer. So the Savior begins by giving thanks in place of prayer in the hearing of the crowd. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.42. [1]

[1] FC 89:300-301; SC 385:80.

A PRAYER TO DEMONSTRATE UNITY OF WILL

CHRYSOSTOM Who ever prayed like Jesus did? Even before uttering any petition, he says, “I thank you that you have heard me,” demonstrating that he did not need prayer. He goes on to say, “And I knew that you always hear me,” not as though he himself were powerless but to show that his will and the Father’s are one. But then why did he pray? He says he did so “for the sake of the people standing by so that they may believe that you have sent me.”… All but saying, If I had been an enemy of God, what is done would not have succeeded. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 64.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:238**. See also Theodore’s comments (CSCO 4 3:229).

THOSE WHO PRAY ARE ALWAYS HEARD

ORIGEN “I knew that you hear me always,” which is reported by John as said by the Lord, makes clear that those who pray are always heard. ON PRAYER 13.1. [1]

[1] ACW 19:48*; GCS 3(2):326.

CHRIST DID NOT NEED TO PRAY

HILARY OF POITIERS When he was about to restore Lazarus, he prayed to the Father. But he did not need to pray. … “But for the benefit of the people standing nearby I said it, that they may believe that you have sent me.” He prayed then for us so that we might know that he is the Son. His prayer did not benefit himself but benefited our faith. He did not need any help, but we needed instruction. ON THE TRINITY 10.71. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:202**; CCL 62A:526-27.

THE TOMB AS A COURT OF JUSTICE

HIPPOLYTUS Because they considered it a blasphemy that he called God his Father, he used the tomb as a court of justice and set the truth as judge, while the surrounding unthankful multitude formed the witnesses, so that those who had said “You blaspheme by naming yourself in your own sense Son of God and him as your Father” were to see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears, while he as good as said to them, “I appeal to him here before you. If he is displeased because I call him Father, and it is a blasphemy as you think, he will not hear me. But if he hears me, it is certainly clear that he is actually my Father. … If I call the dead and he obeys my command and arises, it is not the work of a blasphemer but the command of God and of the Son of God.” That this is the meaning of the prayer and that it did not spring from any deficiency on his part is shown by his words. ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN AND THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. [1]

[1] AEG 4:176*; GCS 1 2:223-24.

KNOCKING ON THE DOORS OF HELL

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS When Christ began to strike the doors of the underworld, to break through the gates of Tartarus, to open the entrance of death, to dissolve the old law of Gehenna, to do away with the age-old right to punish and to demand the return of Lazarus’s soul, the power of Tartarus with all its fury confronted him, brandishing the edict of the Ruler of heaven, bearing the decree of the King most high, presenting the sentence rendered by the mouth of God and in effect for so many years. [1] And on seeing the man, [Tartarus] asked who [Christ] was, what his intentions were, what his purpose was and why all by himself he was fearlessly challenging and attacking the fearsome entrance to death.

As he asked who he was, the angels serving as ministers of the resurrection answered him in the words of the prophet: “He is the King of glory,” he is “the One who is strong and mighty in battle.” [2] But Tartarus responded, “I know that the King of glory is in charge in heaven of all the celestial powers, and the whole of creation is unable to bear his will. However, this one that I see is one of the earthlings, made out of mud, enclosed in a mortal body, and in his human condition viler than human beings, and, in short, soon to be handed over to the grave and very shortly destined to come under my jurisdiction.”

But the angels persisted and kept repeating, “He is ‘the Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory,’ he is the Ruler of heaven, the Creator of the earth, the Savior of the world, the Redeemer of all, he is the one who rendered the death sentence that has you in a fury, he is about to tread on your head, [3] crush your authority and issue his own judgment of condemnation on you, who, although ordered to seize the guilty, drag away the innocent, abduct the saints and now threaten the Son of God himself. So give back one before you are forced to release all.” SERMON 65.6. [4]

[1] The personification of Tartarus, who is the keeper of the underworld, the vivid description of Lazarus’s liberation from the underworld and the dialogue among Tartarus, the angels, God the Father, and the Son are thought by one scholar to come from a lost apocryphon (see C. Jenkins, “Aspects of the Theology of St. Peter Chrysologus,” Church Quarterly Review 103 [1927]:259). There are many similarities with this text and that of the Gospel of Nicodemus 4.20.3-11.27. In Greek mythology, Tartarus was a place even lower than Hades. In Roman mythology, it was the place where sinners were sent.

[2] Ps 24:8, 10 (23:8, 10 LXX).

[3] See Gen 3:15.

[4] FC 109:263-65.

A FUTILE APPEAL TO HEAVEN

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS But Tartarus, still not believing the report he received from the customary messengers, and deploring the situation, with a complaint full of envy makes this appeal to heaven: “O Lord, even though I am the lowest of your creatures, even though I am subjected to grim servitude, I am unfailing in keeping your precepts. I am ever vigilant so that no rash innovator alter the age-old authority of your sentence. But a man has appeared, who is called Christ, bragging that he is your Son, and he reprimands your priests, he rebukes your scribes, he violates your sabbath, he abolishes your law, and he compels souls, released from the flesh and assigned now to my custody for punishment, to return to the bodies in which they had lived wickedly.

“And his audacity, which is growing stronger day by day, has reached the point that he has broken the barriers of the underworld and is attempting to rescue Lazarus, already locked in our prison, already bound by our law and already subject to our authority. Either quickly come to the aid, or, once he opens the doors, you are now going to lose all those whom we have kept in custody for so long a time.”

To this the Son from the bosom of his Father responds, “Father, it is just that a prison holds not the innocent but the guilty. That punishment torments the unrighteous, not the righteous. For how long for the offense of one man, on account of Adam’s guilt alone, will this executioner continue to drag down to himself with his cruel violence patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, confessors, virgins, widows, those abiding in the chastity of marriage, people of all ages and of both sexes, even little children who do not know good or evil? Father, I shall die so that all may not die. Father, I shall pay Adam’s debt so that through me those who die through Adam for the underworld may live for you. Father, because of your sentence I shall shed my blood. That is how important it is to me that your creation should return to you. May the price of my blood so dear to you be the redemption of all the dead.”

To this the whole Trinity agreed and ordered Lazarus to leave, and Tartarus was commanded to obey Christ in giving back all the dead. This is why the Son proclaims, “Father, I thank you for having heard me.” The apostle bears witness that Christ is our advocate in the presence of the Father. [1] And so, when he is seated he judges together with the Father. When he stands, he functions in the capacity of advocate. SERMON 65.6-8. [2]

[1] The designation “apostle” refers not to Paul but uncustomarily to John. See 1 Jn 2:1.

[2] FC 109:265-66*.

11:43 | Lazarus, Come Out!

COME OUT! ANDREW OF CRETE:

Lazarus, Come out!

It is the voice of the Lord, the proclamation of the king—an authoritative command.

Come out!

Leave corruption behind and receive the flesh of incorruption.

Lazarus, Come out!

Let them know that the time has come when those in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of man. Once they have heard they will come alive.

Come out!

The stumbling block is taken away.

Come to me—I am calling you.

Come out!

As a friend, I am calling you; as Lord I am commanding you. …

Come out

Covered with the burial cloth so that they won’t think you were only pretending to be dead. Let them see your hands and feet bound and your face covered. Let them see if they still do not believe the miracle.

Come out!

Let the stench of your body prove the resurrection. Let the burial linen be undone so that they can recognize the one who was put in the tomb.

Come out!

Come alive and enliven! Come out of the tomb. Teach them how all creation will be enlivened in a moment when the trumpet’s voice proclaims the resurrection of the dead.

Come out!

Let breath appear in your nostrils, let blood pulse through your veins, let the voice sound in your larynx, let words fill your ears, let vision enlighten your eyes, let the sense of smell fill your senses, walk as nature intended as your earthly tent is enlivened by your soul.

Come out!

Leave behind the burial cloth and glorify the miracle. Leave the revolting stench of death and proclaim the strength of my power.

I’m calling you out!

Come out.

I, who said, “Let there be light, let there be firmament.”

HOMILY 8 ON LAZARUS.

THE VOICE LONGING FOR LAZARUS

HESYCHIUS OF JERUSALEM The voice longed for Lazarus, its call freeing up the wings of the prisoner so that he rises up from the earth. HOMILY 11 ON ST. LAZARUS. [1]

[1] SubHag 59:412.

JESUS WILL CALL HIS FRIENDS BY NAME AT THE RESURRECTION

APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA The one whom he loved and who was his friend he calls by name so that [Lazarus] serves as a sign of the resurrection of all those who are called friends by the Lord whom the apostle says have died in the Lord. FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 75. [1]

[1] JKGK 31.

A PARTICULAR EXAMPLE OF GENERAL RESURRECTION YET TO COME

MAXIMINUS For all the dead, most beloved, would have arisen out of their graves [on hearing] that one voice if he had not called out that single name. Therefore he spoke in particular, “Lazarus, come forth.” … It is also in this singular name that he called, I say, that we see in a single instance what is to be understood more generally of all in the future. SERMON 14.3. [1]

[1] CCL 87:28.

THE SAME VOICE SPOKE AT CREATION

HIPPOLYTUS O power of the voice, arousing the four days’ dead as from sleep and bringing forth from the grave as well loosed and swiftly running the one who was bound with grave bands. Give your attention, beloved, to the voice, and you will find him to be the Word that spoke at the creation. … “Lazarus, come forth,” and the dead arose, and he who had reached the fourth day was equal to one who had not died at all. “Lazarus, come forth,” and the soul was drawn up from the realms below … and joyfully recognized its own dwelling. ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN AND THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. [1]

[1] AEG 4:180*; GCS 1 2:226-27.

THE SWEET ODOR OF PARADISE INVADES THE STENCH OF DEATH

ATHANASIUS “Come forth.” See, I am standing by you. I am your Lord. You are the work of my hands. Why have you not known me, because in the beginning I myself formed Adam from the earth and gave him breath? Open your mouth yourself so that I may give you breath. Stand on your feet and receive strength for yourself. For I am the strength of the whole creation. Stretch out your hands, and I shall give them strength. For I am the straight staff. I command the foul odor to depart from you. For I am the sweet odor of the trees of paradise. Behold, the prophecy of Isaiah the prophet will be fulfilled in you, namely, “I shall open your tombs, and I shall bring you forth.” [1] HOMILY ON THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS. [2]

[1] See Is 25:8.

[2] AJSL 57:268**.

THE SAME VOICE THAT CALLED LAZARUS WILL CALL US AT THE RESURRECTION

GREGORY OF NYSSA Here we have a man past the prime of life, a corpse, decaying, swollen, in fact, already in a state of dissolution, so that even his own relatives did not want the Lord to draw near the tomb because the decayed body enclosed there was so offensive. And yet, he is brought into life by a single call, confirming the proclamation of the resurrection, that is to say, that expectation of it as universal that we learn by a particular experience to entertain. For as in the regeneration of the universe the apostle tells us that “the Lord himself will descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,” [1] and by a trumpet sound raise up the dead to incorruption—so now too he who is in the tomb, at the voice of command, shakes off death as if it were only sleep. He rids himself of the corruption that had come on his condition of a corpse, leaps forth from the tomb whole and sound, not even hindered as he leaves by the bonds of the grave cloths round his feet and hands. ON THE MAKING OF MAN 25.11. [2]

[1] 1 Thess 4:16.

[2] NPNF 2 5:416-17*.

DIVINE POWER OF THE FATHER AND SON

CHRYSOSTOM Why did he not say, “In the name of my Father come out”? Or why not, “Father, raise him up”? Why did he omit all these expressions and, after assuming the attitude of one praying, show by his actions his independent authority? Because this was also a mark of his wisdom: to show condescension by his words but power by his deeds. For since [the Jewish leaders] had nothing else to charge him with except that he was not of God, and since in this way they deceived many, for this reason he more than sufficiently proves this very point by what he says in a way their weakness required. For it was in his power to show in another way his agreement with the Father as well as his own dignity, but the multitude could not ascend so far. And so he simply says, “Lazarus, come forth.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 64.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:238**.

11:44 | Lazarus Comes Out and Is Unbound

THE COMING OUT OF A GUILTY CONSCIENCE

GREGORY THE GREAT Lazarus is bid to come forth, that is, to come forth and condemn himself with his own mouth, without excuse or reservation. In the same way, the one who lies buried in a guilty conscience may come forth out of himself by confession. MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 22.15.31. [1]

[1] LF 21:573**.

COME OUT OF THE HIDING OF YOUR SIN

AUGUSTINE Do you wonder how it is that he came forth with his feet bound, but forget about the fact that after four days he rose from the dead? In both events it was the power of the Lord that operated and not the strength of the dead. He came forth and yet was still bound. Still in his burial shroud, he has already come outside the tomb. What does it mean? When you despise [Christ], you lie dead. … When you confess, you come forth. For what is to come forth, but to come out, as it were, from your hiding place and show yourself? But you cannot make this confession unless God moves you to do it, by crying with a loud voice, that is, calling you with abundant grace. But even after the dead man has come forth, he remains bound for some time, that is, he is as yet only a penitent. Then our Lord says to his ministers, “Loose him, and let him go,” that is, forgive his sins: “Whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” [1] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 49.24. [2]

[1] Mt 16:19.

[2] NPNF 1 7:277-78**; CCL 36:431. See also his On Eighty-three Varied Questions 65 (FC 70:137).

UNBOUND FROM SIN

IRENAEUS Concerning Lazarus, who had lain four days in the tomb: In what [body did he] rise again? In the same, no doubt, in which he had also died. For if it were not in the very same [body], then certainly he who had died did not rise again. … “The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth.” This was symbolic of that man who had been bound in sins. And therefore the Lord said, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Therefore, since those who were healed were made whole in those members that had in times past been afflicted, and the dead rose in the identical bodies, their limbs and bodies receiving health, so also that life that was granted by the Lord who prefigures eternal things by temporal ones shows that it is he who is himself able to extend both healing and life to his handiwork so that his words concerning its [future] resurrection may also be believed. AGAINST HERESIES 5.13.1. [1]

[1] ANF 1:539*; SC 153:162-66.

THE CHURCH UNBINDS

AUGUSTINE So someone says, “What’s the use of the church, if you can confess, and be brought back to life by the voice of the Lord and come out immediately?” “What use is the church to you as you confess—the church to which the Lord said, ‘What you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven?’” [1] Look at Lazarus’s case. He came out, all tied up. He was already alive, by confessing, but he was not yet walking around freely, being still entangled with the bandages. So what does the church do, told as it has been, “Whatever you loose shall be loosed”? The church does what the Lord went on at once to tell the disciples, of course: “Unbind him and let him go.” SERMON 67.3. [2]

[1] Mt 18:18.

[2] WSA 3 3:216*; PL 38:434.

THE LAND OF DEAD PRAYER

ORIGEN Now, we ought to be aware that there are some Lazaruses even now who, after they have become Jesus’ friends, have become sick and died, and as dead persons they have remained in the tomb and the land of the dead with the dead who were later made alive by Jesus’ prayer. They were summoned from the tomb to the things outside it by Jesus with his loud voice. He who trusts in Jesus comes forth wearing bonds worthy of death from his former sins and still bound around his face, so that he can neither see nor walk nor do anything because of the bonds of death until Jesus commands those who are able to loose him and let him go. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.54. [1]

[1] FC 89:303; SC 385:86-88.

DEATH ITSELF CAST INTO AFFLICTION

BASIL OF SELEUCIA Lazarus appeared, resembling an impromptu trophy over death. He appeared without having left to Hades any of the burial wrappings. For, bound [in these], he came forth. His feet did not bear him, rather, grace provided him with wings. [1] Lazarus appeared, having left Hades behind mourning. As he put an end to the grief of [his] brothers, he cast death into affliction.

Seeing his kingdom destroyed and unable to prevent this, [death] lamented, crying, “What is this change in my affairs, what is this miraculous alliance of nature? The dead are returning to life, and the tombs have become wombs of the living. Alas, for these misfortunes! Even the tombs are faithless to me with regard to the dead, and the dead, although putrefying, are leaping out. They are all dancing in their swathing bands, mocking my laugh. Still mourned, they are going up toward those that mourn them. By showing themselves, they undo the tragedy, leaving me an heir to grief. Who is it who teaches the dead to challenge death? Who is it who is enlisting the deceased against death? Who is the One whose voice the prisons underground cannot support? Who is the One before whom the tombs tremble? He merely speaks, and I am not able to hold on to those whom I have in my power. Oh, in vain was I entrusted with a kingdom! Oh, in vain was I confident in an angry God! HOMILY ON LAZARUS 11-12. [2]

[1] See also earlier the imagery of Hesychius.

[2] AnBoll 104:183*.

LAZARUS’S SIP OF THE RESURRECTION

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS Pray, brothers, that we who have taken a sip of the resurrection with Lazarus offering the toast at Christ’s return may merit drinking the whole draft of the universal resurrection. SERMON 65.9. [1]

[1] FC 109:266.