By Fr. George Dorbarakis
"You raised Lazarus from Hades, who had been dead for four days, O Christ, thus shaking the power of death before Your death and foreshadowing, through a person dear to You, the freedom of all people from corruption" (Matins, Praises, Sticheron).
The resurrection of Lazarus constitutes, according to the hymnographer, an important event, because it also shows the reliability of the resurrection of the Lord Himself. That is, the Lord, who had predicted His resurrection, is bound to make His prophecy completely reliable, with the resurrection from the dead that He gives to Lazarus. Since, in other words, He raised a man from the dead, why can't He also raise Himself? And of course, the resurrection of Lazarus, which refers to the Resurrection of the Lord, by extension also leads to the resurrection from the dead of all people. After all, the Resurrection of the Lord was for this reason. Not because the Lord, the Almighty God Himself who became flesh, needed this resurrection, but in order to give people the greatest gift: to overcome death - the price of their sin - and therefore to live what had been given to people from the beginning as a prospect: to live eternally in God, soul and body.
"The dead man who smelled badly and who was bound in shrouds, O Master, you raised. And I, who am bound with the chains of my sins, raise also" (Ode 7).
However, Saint Theophanes, noting the resurrection from the dead of all people, also emphasizes the condition for this resurrection to function positively for people. Because all people without exception will experience the resurrection, but not in a joyful and bright way. The resurrection of the dead at the Second Coming will be, for some, according to the Lord's own words, a resurrection of life and for others a resurrection of judgment. And what will make the resurrection a joyful and luminous event, literally a heavenly state, is if man, within the framework of this world that God has allowed to be found, lives with faith and love, that is, with repentance from his evil, sinful and selfish way of life. If, in other words, he lives the resurrection of the Lord from now on.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
