Our Church commemorates the raising of Lazarus from the grave on the day before Palm Sunday. All of the details of the Holy Gospel referring to this event are related in the icon. These details are graphic and direct. In our Church Hymnology we sing: "Christ, the Joy of all, the Truth, the Light of Life, and the Resurrection of the world, appeared to those on earth; and by His goodness became also the Image of Resurrection, granting divine forgiveness to all.

The icon gives us a glimpse of the symbolic value and deeper meaning which the Raising of Lazarus signifies. This last and greatest of Jesus’ signs is presented to the world so that the Will of God may be made known through His life-giving power. We see the truth of everlasting life presented through Christ Himself, the resurrection and the life!

This miracle of the Raising of Lazarus is greater than all the previous miracles of Jesus. Lazarus has been dead four days; Jesus prays to the Father and with a loud voice cries out: "Lazarus come forth!" This single command of the Lord fills Lazarus once again with the "breath of life." It is in the Name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that Lazarus is raised from the dead!

Jesus had great love for Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary. It is this same love that we receive when we call Him Lord and obediently follow His ways. Many and glorious are the times we proclaim Jesus as the "philanthropos," the Lover of humankind.

Life is given to us through Christ. Our commitment to the STEWARDSHIP ministry reveals how we live our faith in the Resurrected Lord. It is in Jesus’ Resurrection that we receive eternal life and we express our hope in the life to come by our response as Orthodox Christian stewards.

See: John 11:1-45

To learn more, visit the Department of Stewardship.