John Chrysostom, On the Four-Day Lazarus

In quatriduanum Lazarum

A SERMON ON LAZARUS, FOUR DAYS DEAD

50.641 Recently, beloved, while weaving for you the many-flowered garland of spring, and depicting the season of the year as if in a picture of words, we not only showed you groves blooming and meadows sprouting and breezes hastening towards new life, but also we declared that our nature at this season has received the symbols of the resurrection, and seeking a subject suitable to the season, we drew forth Lazarus who lived again. But being unable to suffice for the promise, we concluded the sermon at the first attempt; and having sought above all, for what reason Lazarus, being passed over in silence by the other evangelists, is written about by John alone, we said that the Holy Spirit, cutting off beforehand the suspicion of fabrication, permitted the evangelists to write down the miracles of the Savior by agreement and in harmony, but also arranged for one to omit one thing, and another another, making it a clear proof, that not maliciously, nor from preparation, nor from collusion. nor to gain favor were the gospels written by them, and so that everything, when the appearance fails, clarifies the unadorned truth.

But since these things were then sufficiently prepared beforehand by us, let us consider what timely need for the evangelists was the miracle concerning Lazarus. The Savior, having often discussed many things about the passion with the 50.642 disciples, saw them growing numb, and shuddering at such a hearing, and supposing the foretold passion to be a matter of weakness rather than of the divine plan, and still being agitated and trembling with human reasonings. For this reason, with the passion already approaching, and the cross about to be fixed, he raises the dead Lazarus, so that he might teach by deed those who were being discipled, that the cross and death are not of weakness, so that he might persuade those present that he commands death, and recalls a soul released from earthly bonds.

And for a certain purpose he undergoes a voluntary death, and perhaps prefiguring in Lazarus the resurrection after three days, and by the short period of the sojourn under the earth having comforted the fainthearted, and on the threshold of the cross necessarily dispelling the fear of the disciples, and showing that what was granted by him to another will also easily belong to him from himself, through these deeds admonishing those who doubted, and in such a manner attaching voices to the events, and through what he did almost uttering these things: nowhere have I left the assumed humanity unmixed with the divine energy, but now as man, now as God, I, on the one hand indicating the nature, and on the other confirming the divine plan, and teaching to attribute the more lowly things to the human 50.643 nature, and to assign the higher things to the divinity, and through this unequal mixture of works explaining the unequal union of the natures, and through the authority over the passions making clear the voluntary nature of the passions, I bridled nature as God, extending the fast for forty days, but after this I hungered, and I grew weary as a man; but as God I calmed the raging sea; I was tempted as a man by the devil, but as God I drove out demons by a command; I am about to suffer for men as a man, but so that you may not suppose what is happening to be from weakness, before death comes upon me I call back him who is held by death, and the of the

In quatriduanum Lazarum

ΛΟΓΟΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΤΕΤΡΑΗΜΕΡΟΝ ΛΑΖΑΡΟΝ

50.641 Πρώην ὑμῖν, ἀγαπητοὶ, τὸν πολυανθῆ τοῦ ἔαρος διαπλέκοντες στέφανον, καὶ τὴν ὥραν τοῦ ἔτους κα θάπερ ἐν πίνακι τῶν λόγων χαρακτηρίζοντες, οὐ μό νον ἄλση θάλλοντα καὶ λειμῶνας ἀναβλαστάνοντας καὶ αὔρας πρὸς ἀναβίωσιν κατεπειγομένας ἐνεδεί κνυμεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν φύσιν κατὰ τὸν και ρὸν τοῦτον τὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως δεδεγμένην ἀπεφαίνο μεν σύμβολα, καὶ πρόσφορόν τινα τῷ καιρῷ ζητοῦν τες ὑπόθεσιν, τὸν ἀναζήσαντα Λάζαρον εἱλκύσαμεν. Ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν διαρκέσαι μὴ δυνηθέντες, κατὰ τὸ πρῶτον ἐγχείρημα τὸν λόγον συνεπεράναμεν· καὶ πρὸ πάντων ἐπιζητήσαντες, τίνος χάριν ὑπὸ τῶν λοιπῶν εὐαγγελιστῶν ὁ Λάζαρος σιγηθεὶς, Ἰωάννῃ μόνῳ συγγέγραπται, ἐλέγομεν, ὅτι τὴν ὑποψίαν πλά σματος προϋποτεμνόμενον τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον συν εχώρησε τοῖς εὐαγγελισταῖς ἐκ συνόδου τε καὶ συμ φωνίας τὰ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἀναγεγραφηκέναι τὰ θαύμα τα, ἀλλὰ καὶ παραλιπεῖν ἄλλον ἄλλο τι παρεσκεύα σεν, ἐναργὲς τεκμήριον ποιούμενον, τὸ μὴ κακούρ γως, μηδὲ ἐκ παρασκευῆς, μηδὲ ἐκ συνθήματος. μηδὲ πρὸς χάριν αὐτοῖς συγγεγράφθαι τὰ εὐαγγέλια, καὶ ὥστε πάντα, ὅταν τὸ φαινόμενον ἐλλείψῃ, τὴν ἀπε ρίεργον ἀλήθειαν σαφηνίζειν.

Ἀλλὰ τού των ἱκανῶς τότε προκατασκευασθέντων ἡμῖν, σκοπή σωμεν τίς ἡ κατὰ τὸν Λάζαρον θαυματουργία τοῖς εὐαγγελισταῖς εὔκαιρος χρεία. Πολλὰ πρὸς τοὺς 50.642 μαθητὰς πολλάκις περὶ τοῦ πάθους διαλεχθεὶς ὁ Σω τὴρ, ναρκῶντας ἑώρα, καὶ πρὸς τοιαύτην ἀκοὴν ὑπο φρίττοντας, καὶ ἀσθενείας μᾶλλον ἢ οἰκονομίας τὸ προμηνυόμενον πάθος ὑπολαμβάνοντας, καὶ ἀνθρω πίνοις ἔτι λογισμοῖς ῥιπιζομένους καὶ τρέμοντας. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἤδη τοῦ πάθους πλησιάζοντος, καὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ μέλλοντος πήγνυσθαι, ἀνίστησιν ἀποθανόντα τὸν Λάζαρον, ἵνα ἔργῳ διδάξῃ τοὺς μαθητευομένους, ὡς οὐκ ἀσθενείας ὁ σταυρὸς καὶ ὁ θάνατος, ἵνα πείσῃ τοὺς παρόντας, ὅτι θανάτῳ μὲν ἐπιτάττει, καὶ ψυχὴν ἀνακαλεῖται τῶν γηΐνων ἀπολυθεῖσαν δεσμῶν.

Σκοπῷ δέ τινι τὸν ἑκούσιον ὑφίσταται θάνατον, καὶ τάχα δὲ προδιαγράφων ἐν τῷ Λαζάρῳ τὴν μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας ἀνάστασιν, καὶ τῇ συντόμῳ προθεσμίᾳ τῆς ὑπὸ γῆν διατριβῆς τοὺς μικροψύχους παραμυθησάμενος, καὶ ἐν προθύροις τοῦ σταυροῦ τὸν φόβον ἀναγκαίως τῶν μαθητῶν ὑπεκλύων, καὶ δεικνὺς ὅτι τὸ τῷ ἑτέρῳ παρ' αὐτοῦ χαρισθὲν καὶ αὐτῷ παρ' ἑαυτοῦ ῥᾳδίως ὑπάρξει, διὰ αὐτῶν τῶν ἔργων ἀμφιβάλλοντας νου θετῶν, καὶ τοιούτῳ τρόπῳ φωνὰς τοῖς πράγμασιν περιάπτων, καὶ δι' ὧν ἐποίει σχεδὸν ταῦτα φθεγγό μενος· οὐδαμοῦ τὴν ἀναληφθεῖσαν ἀνθρωπότητα τῆς θείας ἐνεργείας ἄμικτον ἀπολέλοιπα, ἀλλὰ νῦν μὲν ὡς ἄνθρωπος, νῦν δὲ ὡς Θεὸς ἐγὼ, τῇ μὲν φύσιν ὑποδεικνὺς, τῇ δὲ τὴν οἰκονομίαν πιστούμενος, καὶ διδάσκων τὰ μὲν ταπεινότερα προσάπτειν τῇ ἀνθρω 50.643 πότητι, ἀνατιθέναι δὲ τὰ ὑψηλότερα τῇ θεότητι, καὶ διὰ τῆς ἀνίσου ταύτης τῶν ἔργων κράσεως τὴν ἄν ισον τῶν φύσεων ἕνωσιν ἑρμηνεύων, καὶ διὰ τῆς κατὰ τῶν παθῶν ἐξουσίας δηλοποιῶν τῶν παθῶν τὸ αὐθαί ρετον, ἐχαλίνωσα τὴν φύσιν ὡς Θεὸς, ἐπὶ τεσσαρά κοντα ἡμέρας παρατείνας τὴν ἀσιτίαν, ἐπείνασα δὲ μετὰ ταῦτα, καὶ ἐκοπώθην ὡς ἄνθρωπος· ἀλλ' ὡς Θεὸς θάλατταν λυττῶσαν ἐκοίμησα· ἐπειράθην ὡς ἄνθρωπος ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου, ἀλλ' ὡς Θεὸς ἐπιτά γματι δαίμονας ἀπήλασα· μέλλω πάσχειν ὑπὲρ ἀν θρώπων ὡς ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ ἀσθενείας ὑπολά βητε τὸ γινόμενον, πρὸ τοῦ θάνατον ἐπελθεῖν ἀνακα λοῦμαι τὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ θανάτου κρατούμενον, καὶ τὴν τῆς