On Lazarus

Name: On Lazarus
Author: Amphilochius of Iconium

In Lazarum

Amphilochius of Iconium (c. 340–c. 395 AD) · PG 39

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Contents4 passages

1The unslanderable raising of Lazarus
2Jesus' strategy in the raising of Lazarus
3The crowd's doubt and Jesus' strategic tears
4The strategy of the raising and the proof of the wrappings

Author

Amphilochius of Iconium (c. 340–c. 395 AD) — Bishop of Iconium from 373, a cousin of Gregory of Nazianzus and a friend of Basil. He defended the full divinity of the Holy Spirit.

All works by Amphilochius of Iconium

About this text

A bishop's sermon on the raising of Lazarus, and on faith that answers doubt.

Amphilochius of Iconium (c. 340–c. 395) was a fourth-century bishop in Cappadocia, in what is now Turkey. He governed the church of Iconium from about 374 until his death. This homily on the raising of Lazarus was delivered as a liturgical address to a Christian congregation.

The sermon takes its occasion from the Gospel of John, where Jesus raises his friend Lazarus after four days in the tomb. Amphilochius presents this event as the firstfruits of the resurrection, a public pledge of the general resurrection to come. He emphasizes that Lazarus was a well-known man whose death and burial were witnessed by many, so that no one could dismiss the miracle as a private or staged affair.

A reader will meet Lazarus, his sisters Martha and Mary, Jesus, and the evangelist John. The homily quotes Martha and Jesus in direct speech, and it refers to the chief priests and Pharisees as hostile onlookers. Amphilochius argues that Jesus arranged the timing, questions, tears, and commands deliberately, as a strategy to make the crowd unambiguous witnesses. He also cites Elijah, Enoch, and Elisha as earlier examples of preserved life or of struggling to raise the dead. The author follows the Gospel of John and alludes to Old Testament figures without always explaining them, so a reader should know that Enoch was taken up alive and that Elisha struggled when raising the dead.

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Translated from PG 39 (Greek)

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The unslanderable raising of Lazarus§1

Amphilochius opens his homily by calling the congregation to look again at John's account of Lazarus, the firstfruits of the resurrection, and shows how the Jewish leaders could slander every other miracle but not this one.

1Let us bring the evangelist John into our midst again, for it is good to contemplate the firstfruits of the resurrection. You heard him say just now: "Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead" (John 12:1). Did you see the firstfruits of the resurrection prefigured in Lazarus, which the faithful crowd recognized? The crowds recognized it, and the chief priests reviled the wonder-working, turning it into envy. They truly envied the resurrection of Lazarus, because after his resurrection, which you heard about, they plotted to kill him. Did you see the excess of envy? The one whom the Lord raised, they resolved to kill, not realizing that even if they killed him, it would again be easy for the Lord to raise his friend. They plotted to kill Lazarus. Nothing stung the Jews as much as the resurrection of Lazarus. This miracle alone they could not slander. They slandered the healing of the man born blind, saying, "This is he; no, it is not he; it is someone like him" (John 9:9). They slandered the raising of Jairus's daughter, saying that she had merely collapsed and had not been handed over to complete death. They slandered the resurrection of the widow's only son, saying that he had feigned death and had not been swallowed up by the tyranny of death. They slandered the withered fig tree, saying that it had been stripped by birds and not withered by the Lord's word. They slandered the changing of water into wine, saying that the dinner guests were already drunk and did not recognize the jest. Only the resurrection of Lazarus they could not slander. They knew Lazarus; the man was well known. They had followed the funeral procession, they had seen the tomb being sealed, they had consoled Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, according to custom, as at a funeral meal for the dead. They knew that he had lain in the tomb for exactly four days, and that he was a corpse four days dead, completely disjointed, his flesh wasted away, his bones loosened from their sockets, his sinews torn apart, his inward parts scattered, his belly dissolved. Knowing all this, when they suddenly saw the resurrection of Lazarus whole and complete, as from a lathe, gleaming with renewed life, they were thrown into confusion. They nearly fainted, finding no words of pretext for how they might slander the resurrection of Lazarus, since the Lord's strategy had arranged this. What does it mean that the Lord's strategy had arranged this? Listen briefly.

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Jesus' strategy in the raising of Lazarus§2

Amphilochius is explaining how the Lord's strategy arranged the circumstances of Lazarus' raising so that the crowd would become unambiguous heralds of the resurrection.

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2When Lazarus put off this present life in the natural way, the Lord was not present in Bethany to bodily eyes, though in his divinity he is present everywhere and fills all things. For four days after Lazarus was buried, Jesus came to Bethany to enact the resurrection of his friend. So when the Lord arrived in Bethany, as soon as Martha, Lazarus' sister, heard of it, she ran, she hurried, she fell before him in supplication, offering a chosen plea. Falling before him, she said to the Lord: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died (John 11:21). And now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you (John 11:22)." But the Lord, being himself a sea of long-suffering, answered her: "What are you saying, Martha? You call me Lord, and you do not understand what Lord means? Was I not here? Wait a little while; for soon you will learn from your brother. Your brother will rise. I pardon you, Martha; for you are drunk with grief—as he said to her: a person who is drunk makes mistakes—when you sober up, then you will come to your senses. Your brother will rise." But Martha, still caught up in human words, answered the Lord: "I know that he will rise on the last day (John 11:24)." The Lord said to her: "Why do you stammer, Martha? Why do you shrink from the resurrection into distant hopes? The resurrection is speaking with you, and you speak about the resurrection? I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live (John 11:25)." While the Lord was saying these things, nearly the whole city of Bethany ran down to the Lord's arrival—not to marvel, but to laugh. For they had no hope that a man four days dead could rise. What then did the Lord do? When he saw such a crowd running down and that they were worthy and sufficient to bear witness to what was about to be raised by him, he answered them: "Where have you laid Lazarus?" Did the Master of the place not know the place? He knew the place, but he arranged the manner, so that all of them, compelled once again, would follow Jesus, so that receiving the resurrection with their own eyes they might become unambiguous heralds. "Where have you laid him?" Those who were asked said to him: "Come and see (John 11:34)." As the Lord walked and hurried to the tomb, the crowd following behind exchanged words among themselves, saying: "Why does this man want to see Lazarus' tomb? If he is the Son of God, he will raise him."

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The crowd's doubt and Jesus' strategic tears§3

The crowd following Jesus to Lazarus' tomb is speaking among themselves, and Martha now approaches Jesus as he walks toward the tomb.

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3The crowd said among themselves: "For those who had died recently, the ones he raised, we do not know. How then can we know whether they were handed over to a complete death? He will raise this man, and we will know that he truly is the Son of God."

Carried along with these words, Martha herself came to the Lord and said: "Where are you going, Master? Why do you want to see Lazarus' tomb? Why do you stir up our pain again? Why do you rouse our mourning? Why do you want to see the tomb? It will do no good, Master. He already stinks, for he has been four days dead."

But the Lord said to Martha: "Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God (John 11:40)? You say to me, 'He already stinks.' Your sister gives off fragrance, and you reek of smoke with unbelief? I want to see the tomb of my friend."

After saying these things, the Lord went to the tomb. And when he drew near the tomb and saw the monument, he immediately wept. What need was there to weep for the one he was about to raise? He wept. Why? Listen carefully. The Lord arranged everything as strategy. He wept at the tomb so that he might make public the opinion of those who followed him, what suspicion they held about him.

So when the crowds following him saw him weeping, they again felt human things and began to exchange words among themselves, saying: "See how he loved him (John 11:36). The one who raised the dead and gave sight to the blind, could not have kept this man from dying, if he loved him so?"

But the Lord, when he saw them still speaking human things, answered them: "It would have been easy for me to preserve the life of Lazarus, as also of Elijah and Enoch, but none of you knew that by my will the life of Lazarus was being preserved. For this reason I allowed him to be swallowed by death, so that you might learn precisely that I have authority over life and death."

And immediately the Lord said to them, as you all clearly know: "Roll away the stone (John 11:39)." He commanded the Jews there: "Roll away the stone." See how he arranged everything as strategy, making them precise witnesses of Lazarus' resurrection. "Roll away the stone." He permitted his disciples to move mountains by a word, and did he himself not roll away the stone?

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The strategy of the raising and the proof of the wrappings§4

Amphilochius is closing the homily by showing how Jesus' command to roll away the stone and then to unbind Lazarus was a deliberate strategy to make the onlookers witnesses of the raising, and he ends by calling the congregation to join the palm-bearing acclamation.

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4But as I said before, he was arranging everything wisely, as I said before, as strategy for advantage when he said to the Jews: "Roll away the stone," so that from the corpse-bearing stench itself they might learn that he had decayed and was not stolen. "Roll away the stone."

When those present rolled away the stone with grumbling—for the hard-to-control corpse-bearing stench was stinging them—immediately the Lord cried out: "Lazarus, come out (John 11:43)." The Master is the one calling; no one speaks against him. "Lazarus, come out; fully convince Martha your sister that I command and do not beg. Lazarus, come out. Before I go down, come out; in you is the pledge, but in me is the perfect thing. Lazarus, come out."

But you, friend, when you hear "Lazarus, come out," do not suppose that the Lord shouted many times. He spoke once and raised the one he had formed. For he did not weep as Elijah did, nor was he at a loss as Elisha was. With a single-sound voice he woke the one sleeping in his presence, saying: "Lazarus, come out." One word, and the wonders were various. The Lord only called out, "Lazarus, come out," and immediately the flesh was being filled out, the hair was being restored, the joints were being bound together, the veins were being refilled with pure blood. Hades, cut off from below, was sending Lazarus onward. The soul of Lazarus, being detained and comforted by the holy angels, was being remolded, the soul into its own body. And the most glorious thing of all was that he was bound everywhere, his feet and his face with burial bands, and he walked without hindrance.

Therefore the Lord also commanded the crowds present more effectively, saying: "Untie him and let him go." See the Lord's strategy and how he arranges everything wisely. For the full assurance of those present he said: "Untie him and let him go. As you rolled away the stone and showed the tomb and shared in the smell, untie the burial wrappings too; preserve the stone as a blessing, keep the burial wrappings as witnesses. If the chief priests and the Pharisees disbelieve that Lazarus has risen, show the burial wrappings; display the burial cloths as the paralytic carried his mat."

But let us, carrying the palm branches of the date palms, say: "Hosanna in the highest; blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." To him be glory and power with the all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

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