Today, Lazarus is raised. After the Resurrection of the Lord, he will become a bishop on the island of Cyprus. And eventually he will die again. In fact, his relics are with us to this day. Why, then, did Christ raise Lazarus? First, Lazarus, as a living miracle of Christ, became a witness to his power over life and death and hence a witness to Christ’s Resurrection. Second, though the raising of Lazarus preceded Christ’s Passion chronologically, logically it comes afterward—Christ’s power over death and hell, exercised through his Passion and Rising, work backwards, as it were, to raise Lazarus. The one who rose on the third day raised him who was four days dead. In this way, the raising of Lazarus prefigures the general resurrection of the dead at the end of time, in which Saint Lazarus will, of course, participate, this time rising to live forever and reign with his friend, Jesus Christ, the Savior and God of all.
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