LAZARUS SATURDAY
Apostles of the Seventy: Herodion, Agabus Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, and those with them
Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
After the Entrance
Come; let us worship and fall down before Christ, O Son of God, Who art glorious in Thy Saints, save uswho sing to Thee: Alleluia!
Troparion, Tone 1 (Lazarus)
By raising Lazarus from the dead before Thy passion, Thou didst confirm the universal resurrection, O Christ God. Like the children with the palms of victory, we cry out to Thee, O Vanquisher of Death: “Hosanna in the highest!// Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.”
Kontakion, Tone 2 (Lazarus)
Christ – the Joy, the Truth, and the Light of all, the Life of the World and the Resurrection – has appeared in His goodness, to those on earth. He has become the Image of our Resurrection, granting divine forgiveness to all.
Instead of the Trisagion
As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Alleluia!
THE EPISTLE READING
Deacon:Let us attend!
Priest:Peace be unto all!
Reader:And to your spirit!
Deacon:Wisdom!
Reader:The Prokeimenon in the 3rd Tone. The Lord is my Light and my Savior! Whom shall I fear?
Choir:The Lord is my Light and my Savior! Whom shall I fear?
Reader:The Lord is the Defender of my life! Of whom shall I be afraid?
Choir:The Lord is my Light and my Savior! Whom shall I fear?
Reader:The Lord is my Light and my Savior!
Choir:Whom shall I fear?
Deacon:Wisdom!
Reader:The Reading from the Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Hebrews.
Deacon:Let us attend!
Reader:Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; 29for our God is a consuming fire. 1Let brotherly love continue. 2Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you also are in the body. 4Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous. 5Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have; for He has said, "I will never fail you nor forsake you." 6Hence we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid; what can man do to me?" 7Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. [(333-ctr) Heb. 12:28-13:8 (RSV)]
Priest:Peace be unto you, Reader.
Reader:And to your spirit. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, in the 5th Tone.
Choir:Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Reader:The Lord is King; He is robed in majesty!
Choir:Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Reader:For He has established the world so that it shall never be moved.
Choir:Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
THE GOSPEL READING
1Now a certain man was ill, Laz'arus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Laz'arus was ill. 3So the sisters sent to Him, saying, "Lord, he whom You love is ill." 4But when Jesus heard it He said, "This illness is not unto death; it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it."5Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Laz'arus. 6So when He heard that he was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was. 7Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go into Judea again." 8The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?" 9Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.10But if any one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."11Thus He spoke, and then He said to them, "Our friend Laz'arus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep." 12The disciples said to Him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." 13Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He meant taking rest in sleep. 14Then Jesus told them plainly, "Laz'arus is dead; 15and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."
16Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." 17Now when Jesus came, He found that Laz'arus had already been in the tomb four days.
18Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met Him, while Mary sat in the house. 21Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22And even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You." 23Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 25Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"27She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, He Who is coming into the world." 28When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying quietly, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you."
29And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to Him. 30Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met Him. 31When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw Him, fell at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; 34and He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." 35Jesus wept. 36So the Jews said, "See how He loved him!" 37But some of them said, "Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" 38Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
39Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days." 40Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. 42 I knew that Thou hearest Me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that Thou didst send Me." 43When He had said this, He cried with a loud voice, "Laz'arus, come out." 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." 45Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what He did, believed in Him. [(39) John 11:1-45 (RSV)]
The Hymn to the Theotokos
Let us honor the Pure Theotokos! She accepted the Fire of Divinity in her womb but was not consumed! Let us magnify her in song!
Communion Hymns
From the mouths of babes and infants Thou has founded praise. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Daily Dismissal
Lazarus Saturday by:Very Rev. Paul Lazor.
In a carefully detailed narrative the Gospel relates how Christ, six days before His own death, and with particular mindfulness of the people "standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me" (John 11:42), went to His dead friend Lazarus at Bethany outside of Jerusalem. He was aware of the approaching death of Lazarus but deliberately delayed His coming, saying to His disciples at the news of His friend's death: "For your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe" (John 11:14).
When Jesus arrived at Bethany, Lazarus was already dead four days. This fact is repeatedly emphasized by the Gospel narrative and the liturgical hymns of the feast. The four-day burial underscores the horrible reality of death. Man, created by God in His own image and likeness, is a spiritual-material being, a unity of soul and body. Death is destruction; it is the separation of soul and body. The soul without the body is a ghost, as one Orthodox theologian puts it, and the body without the soul is a decaying corpse. "I weep and 1 wail, when I think upon death, and behold our beauty, fashioned after the image of God, lying in the tomb dishonored, disfigured, bereft of form." This is a hymn of St John of Damascus sung at the Church's burial services. This "mystery" of death is the inevitable fate of man fallen from God and blinded by his own prideful pursuits.
With epic simplicity the Gospel records that, on coming to the scene of the horrible end of His friend, "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). At this moment Lazarus, the friend of Christ, stands for all men, and Bethany is the mystical center of the world. Jesus wept as He saw the "very good" creation and its king, man, "made through Him" (John 1:3) to be filled with joy, life and light, now a burial ground in which man is sealed up in a tomb outside the city, removed from the fullness of life for which he was created, and decomposing in darkness, despair and death. Again as the Gospel says, the people were hesitant to open the tomb, for "by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days" (John 11:39).
When the stone was removed from the tomb, Jesus prayed to His Father and then cried with a loud voice: "Lazarus, come out." The icon of the feast shows the particular moment when Lazarus appears at the entrance to the tomb. He is still wrapped in his grave clothes and his friends, who are holding their noses because of the stench of his decaying body, must unwrap him. In everything stress is laid on the audible, the visible and the tangible. Christ presents the world with this observable fact: on the eve of His own suffering and death He raises a man dead four days! The people were astonished. Many immediately believed on Jesus and a great crowd began to assemble around Him as the news of the raising of Lazarus spread. The regal entry into Jerusalem followed.
Lazarus Saturday is a unique day: on a Saturday a Matins and Divine Liturgy bearing the basic marks of festal, Resurrectional services, normally proper to Sundays, are celebrated. Even the baptismal hymn is sung at the Liturgy instead of Holy God: "As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ."
Saints Herodion (Rodion), Agabus, Asyncritus, Rufus, Phlegon and Hermes are among the Seventy Apostles, chosen by Christ and sent out by Him to preach (Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles: January 4).
The holy Apostle Herodion was a relative of Saint Paul, and his companion on many journeys. When Christianity had spread to the Balkan Peninsula, the Apostles Peter and Paul established Saint Herodion as Bishop of Patara. Saint Herodion zealously preached the Word of God and converted many of the Greek pagans and Jews to Christianity.
Enraged by the preaching of the disciple, the idol-worshippers and Jews with one accord fell upon Saint Herodion, and they began to beat him with sticks and pelt him with stones. One of the mob struck him with a knife, and the saint fell down. But when the murderers were gone, the Lord restored him to health unharmed.
After this, Saint Herodion continued to accompany the Apostle Paul for years afterward. When the holy Apostle Peter was crucified (+ c. 67), Saint Herodion and Saint Olympos were beheaded by the sword at the same time.
The holy Apostle Agabus was endowed with the gift of prophecy. He predicted (Acts 11:27-28) the famine during the reign of the emperor Claudius (41-52), and foretold the suffering of the Apostle Paul at Jerusalem (Acts 21:11). Saint Agabus preached in many lands, and converted many pagans to Christ.
Saint Rufus, whom the holy Apostle Paul mentions in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 16:11-15), was bishop of the Greek city of Thebes. Saint Asyncritus (Rom. 16:14) was bishop in Hyrcania (Asia Minor). Saint Phlegon was bishop in the city of Marathon (Thrace). Saint Hermes was bishop in Dalmatia (there is another Apostle of the Seventy by the name of Hermas, who was bishop in the Thracian city of Philippopolis).
All these disciples for their intrepid service to Christ underwent fierce sufferings and were found worthy of a martyr’s crown.
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