The sisters sent word to Jesus to inform him, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” Upon hearing this, Jesus said: “This sickness is not to end in death; rather is for God’s glory, that through it the Son of God may be glorified.” Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus very much. Yet, after hearing that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two days more. Finally Jesus said plainly: “Lazarus is dead. For your sakes I am glad I was not there, that you may come to believe.” “Take away the stone,” Jesus directed. Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, it has been four days now; surely there will be a stench!” Jesus replied, “Did I not assure you that if you believed you would see the glory of God displayed?” They then took away the stone and Jesus looked upward and said: “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I know that you always hear me. But I have said this for the sake of the crowd, that they may believe that you sent me.” Having said this, he called loudly, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, bound hand and foot with linen strips, his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus told them, “Untie him, and let him go free.” From that day onward there was a plan afoot to kill him.
St. Peter Chrysologus
tells us: On his return from the underworld, Lazarus comes forth from the
tomb like death confronting its conqueror, an image of the resurrection to
come. Before we can fathom the depths of meaning behind this miracle, we must
consider the way in which our Lord raised Lazarus to life. This action appears
to us as the greatest of all his signs; we see in it the supreme example of
divine power, the most marvelous of all his wonderful works. Our Lord had
raised up the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, but although he
restored life to the dead girl, he left the law of death still in force. He
also raised the widow’s only son. He halted the bier, forestalled the young man’s
burial, arrested the onset of physical decay, but the life he restored had not
completely fallen into the power of death. The case of Lazarus was unique. His
death and resurrection to life had nothing in common with the other two. Death
had already exerted its full power over him, so that in him the sign of the
resurrection shone out in all its fullness. I think it is possible to say that
if Lazarus had remained only three days in the tomb it would have deprived our
Lord’s resurrection of its full significance, since Christ proved himself Lord
by returning to life after three days, whereas Lazarus, as his servant, had to
lie in the grave for four days before he was recalled. However, let us see if
we can verify this suggestion by reading the gospel text further.
His sisters sent a
message to Jesus saying, Lord the friend whom you love is sick. By these
words they appeal to his affection, they lay claim to his friendship; they call
on his love, urging their familiar relationship with him to persuade him to
relieve their distress. But for Christ it was more important to conquer death
that to cure disease. He showed his love for his friend not by healing him but
by calling him back from the grave. Instead of a remedy for his illness, he
offered him the glory of rising from the dead.We are next told that when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, he remained where he was for two days. You see how he gives full scope to death. He grants free reign to the grave, he allows corruption to set in. He prohibits neither putrefaction nor stench from taking their normal course. He allows the realm of darkness to seize his friend, drag him down to the underworld, and take possession of him. He acts like this so that human hope may perish entirely and human despair reach its lowest depths. The deed he is about to accomplish may then clearly be seen to be the work of God, not of man.
He waited for Lazarus to die, staying in the same place until he could tell his disciples that he was dead; then he announced his intention of going to him. Lazarus is dead, he said, and I am glad. Was this a sign of his love for this friend? Not so. Christ was glad because their sorrow over the death of Lazarus was soon to be changed into joy at his restoration to life. I am glad for you sake, he said. Why for their sake? Because the death and raising of Lazarus were a perfect prefiguration of the death and resurrection of the Lord himself. What the Lord was soon to achieve in himself had already been achieved in his servant. This explains why he said to them: I am glad for your sake not to have been there, because now you will believe. It was necessary that Lazarus should die, so that the faith of the disciples might also rise with him from the dead. (Sermon 63: PL 52, 375-377)
My thoughts: God
always has a plan. He never allows anything to happen to us, or continue in us,
without a purpose. We must believe this. Sometimes it seems as though God is
never going to relieve our suffering, erase our problems or grant us our hearts’
desires. Yet we learn from the story of Lazarus that every aspect of his death
was part of a plan to increase the faith of those who witnessed the miracle. We
must remember that our earthly happiness is not God’s main goal for our lives:
it is our eternal happiness,and that of those around us, that matters most to Him. If we are willing to be
His suffering servants, and let Him take His time in granting our requests, if
at all, then we are willing to let Him use us so that the faith of those around
us “might also rise.” We never know the entire story of our own lives. That is
why we must trust in God, who does.
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