“Having fulfilled Forty Days… we ask to see the Holy Week of Your Passion.” With these words sung at Vespers of Friday, Lent comes to its end and we enter into the annual commemoration of Christ’s suffering, death and Resurrection. It begins on the Saturday of Lazarus.

A DUAL FEAST

The dual feast of Lazarus’ resurrection and the Entrance of the Lord to Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) is described in liturgical texts as the “beginning of the Cross” and is to be understood therefore, within the context of the Holy Week. The troparion sung on these days explicitly affirms that by raising Lazarus from the dead Christ confirmed the truth of the general resurrection. It is highly significant that we are led into the darkness of the Cross by one of the twelve major feasts of the Church. Light and joy shine not only at the end of Holy Week but also at its beginning.

THE PARADOX OF LAZARUS SATURDAY

All those familiar with Orthodox worship know the peculiar, almost paradoxical character of Lazarus Saturday services.

It is a Sunday, i.e., a Resurrection, service on a Saturday, a day usually devoted to the liturgical commemoration of the dead. And the joy which permeates these services highlights one central theme: the forthcoming victory of Christ over Hades. Hades is the Biblical term for death. It is that inescapable darkness and destruction that swallows all life and poisons with its shadow the whole world.

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DEATH SENSES ITS DEFEAT

But now — with Lazarus’ resurrection — “death begins to tremble.” For there, the decisive duel between Life and Death begins and it offers to us the key to the entire liturgical mystery of Pascha.

In the early church Lazarus Saturday was called “announcement of Pascha”, it announces and anticipates, indeed, the wonderful light and peace of the next Saturday – the Great and Holy Saturday, the day of the Life-giving Tomb.

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BY RAISING LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD, JESUS DEMONSTRATES THAT HE HAS AUTHORITY OVER LIFE AND DEATH.

Jesus is truly Perfect God and Perfect Man – the “Son of God” and the “Son of Man” – one Person in two Natures – the Divine and the Human, without separation or confusion.

Adapted from www.greekorthodox.org.au