Orthodox Christian Church of the Holy Spirit
Orthodox Church in America - Archdiocese of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania
145 N. Kern St Beavertown PA, 17813
Lazarus Saturday

Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Jesus said unto [Martha, the sister of him who was dead], ‘Said I not unto thee that if thou would believe, thou should see the glory of God?’ . . . Then many of the Jews who came . . . and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed in Him.

 

And, again, “Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees . . . and said, ‘What shall we do?  For this Man doeth many miracles.  If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe in Him, . . . .’” (Jn. 11:47).

All the mighty acts of our Lord throughout the entirety of His earthly ministry served one purpose and had only one focus: the glory of God.  So I say to each of us, “Here is wisdom!  Let us attend!”  This is what we have been created for – our sole purpose and singular focus is the glory of God.  Each mighty saving deed, each mighty sanctifying act, each miracle, each healing, each exorcism, each Word from the mouth of God-in-the-flesh was a sign of the Kingdom of God penetrating our meager existence – a Kingdom not of this world, as Jesus tells Pilate (Jn. 18:36).  Each pointed beyond itself, each pointed beyond this world and our existence, to another world and transcendent existence – beckoning us all to the Kingdom that cannot be shaken no matter what (Hb. 12:28-13:8) – to the Kingdom translucent with the glory of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, “one in essence and undivided” (Divine Liturgy).  Indeed, even death itself has the capacity to make known the glory of God, even as our Lord reminds His Disciples.  “’This sickness [of Lazarus] is not unto death, but for the glory of God,’” He declares, “’that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.’”

Indeed, prior to our Lord’s glorification by the Cross and Empty Tomb, that is to say, by His Death and Resurrection, all was but a temporary stay of sentence and a reprieve from the inevitable.  Everyone who was ever healed or raised up from the dead shared one thing in common: corruption, the stench of death, the ever present reminder of our mortality.  Those blessed souls spared by Jesus of their sicknesses, their diseases, their conditions or syndromes – the sick, the blind, the lame, the palsied (paralyzed), the demon-possessed – though relieved, healed, saved from, and restored – each nevertheless had to die, including the four-day-dead Lazarus commemorated here today. 

None of this temporality, however, betrays God’s glory and is not proof that God’s glory is a hoax or is lacking in anyway.  It does not nor cannot diminish one iota the glory of God in Jesus Christ.  What does our Lord assure Martha?  “’I AM the Resurrection and the Life.,’” our Lord declares with no uncertainty to the grieving Martha, bereft of her beloved brother.  “’He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.’”  The divine promise stands unaffected by the vicissitudes of this passing world (1 Cr. 7:31; 1 Jn. 2:17) because the promise is God Who cannot lie (Hb. 6:13-20) and His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, a Kingdom that cannot be shaken!  “’I AM the Resurrection and the Life,’” declares the crucified King Who has trampled down death by His own Death (Paschal Troparion)!  For “Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him,” says the Apostle (Rm. 6:9).  Because He now lives to God (Rm. 6:10), He bestows Life on all who are in the graves and all who must still taste the corruption of this mortal existence.  “’I AM come that they might have Life, and that they might have it more abundantly,’” says our Lord.  “’I AM the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep’” (Jn. 10:10-11).    

Like all miracles in this life, they point us beyond ourselves to God.  In particular, they point us to the God Who has set aside His eternal glory in order to partake of the diminished glory of humanity so that humanity might once more be transfigured by and with the divine glory of Paradise.  “For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of His own eternity” (Gn. 1:26; WS 2:23).  The Creator of the image comes to those whom He has created in order to do for us what is impossible for us to do for ourselves in our fallen state.  “[B]ecoming incarnate of a holy Virgin, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being likened to the body of our lowliness, that He might liken us to the image of His glory” (St. Basil’s Divine Liturgy/Anaphora; Pp. 2:5-11; 3:20-21).  We were created for the glory of God, to serve God in all of His glory, to “partake of His divine nature” (Ep. 4:24; Co. 3:10; 2 Pe. 1:4), and in partaking of His divine nature to be “transformed into the same image from glory to glory, . . . by the Spirit of the Lord” (Rm. 8:29-30; 2 Cr. 3:18). 

From the foundation of the world, beloved, all of this has come about (1 Pe. 1:20-21; Rv. 13:8).  From the beginning, God the Son has said, “’This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, . . . .’”  From the very beginning, God has promised Adam and all of his progeny, death will not be the last word.  It will not be the permanent and the inevitable and unfit conclusion to life.  For the Creator and God has come to despoil death and to destroy the works of the devil by whose envy death has come about (WS 2:24; Hb. 2:14-15; 1 Jn. 3:8).  Today, all of creation rejoices in Him!  Today, all of creation pauses in silence to hear the voice of the One sent to re-create and make new.  Today, the Word of God does not return void nor does it echo with emptiness, but rather it accomplishes that for which it has been sent forth, “’Lazarus, come forth! . . . Loose him, and let him go’” (Is. 55:8-11).  Today is a forth-telling, a sign of the Kingdom of God in our midst, “’Death is swallowed up in victory!’  ‘O death, where is thy sting?  O grave, where is thy victory?’ . . . But thanks be to God, Who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Cr. 15:54-55; 2 Tm. 1:10).                            

Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God,

have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

 

 

PROPERS:

 

Hb. 12:28-13:8

Jn. 11:1-45      

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