The Raising of Lazarus (Lazarus Saturday)

Meaning of the feast

Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday form one liturgical passage from the forty days of Great Lent into Holy Week. They are days of joy and visible triumph, yet they already point toward Christ’s approaching suffering, death, and resurrection. The festal troparion confesses that by raising Lazarus before His Passion, Christ confirmed the universal resurrection. Thus, the Church receives the event at Bethany not as an isolated memory, but as a witness to the Lord’s victory over death.

Gospel background

The Gospel of John recounts how Christ came to Bethany, near Jerusalem, to His departed friend Lazarus. He knew of Lazarus’s death but did not come immediately, telling His disciples that this would serve their faith. By the time He arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. The Gospel and the hymns of the feast emphasize this detail. At the tomb, Jesus wept. He then ordered the stone removed, prayed to the Father, and called aloud, “Lazarus, come out.” Lazarus emerged, still bound in burial cloths. Many who saw this believed in Jesus, and news of the raising gathered a great crowd around Him. His royal entry into Jerusalem followed.

Spiritual meaning today

In the Church’s understanding, death is the painful separation of soul and body, while the human person was created by God for life. Christ’s tears at Lazarus’s tomb reveal neither distance from human sorrow nor indifference, but compassion and love. This feast does not ask Christians to deny grief; it directs hope toward the risen Lord. On Lazarus Saturday, the faithful may take part attentively in worship, give thanks for the gift of life, and pray for those who have departed. Matins and the Divine Liturgy have distinctive festive and resurrectional features. At the Liturgy, the baptismal hymn “As many as have been baptized into Christ” is sung in place of “Holy God.”

In the Bible

• John 11:1–45

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