Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Lazarus Saturday opens our spiritual eyes to the invisible miracle of God's love

| updated on 4/8/23 1:06 PM
Photo: BGNES

Eight days before Easter Sunday, the Christian Church commemorates the day the Savior raised Lazarus from Bethany. The Son of God was a frequent visitor to Lazarus' home, and when the latter became seriously ill, his sisters Martha and Mary sent word to the Savior in the hope that he would help the sufferer. Christ, however, who was in the lands beyond the Jordan, arrived four days after the death of his friend, and found everyone grieving most bitterly for him. In their grief, Martha and Mary reproached Jesus for not having come in time. “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live," Jesus replied, and went to the tomb where Lazarus was laid.

Father Bozhidar Marinov

"In fact, these words of the Lord from the Gospel reading encourage us that faith in Christ, in the Son of God, gives us hope for life, faith in Christ delivers us from death, and again faith in Christ makes us partakers of God's glory," notes Father Bozhidar Marinov of Sofia's Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. - When the Lord learned that Lazarus had died, He deliberately delayed his returning back, knowing that not only Lazarus' relatives, but also His disciples, the inhabitants of the city, and all of us who live millennia from now would be convinced by the miracle that He would perform of the universal resurrection of the dead and of this miraculous story."

When Christ goes to the tomb of His deceased friend Lazarus, He weeps not because of His own loss, but because He sees the suffering of the people and their pain for their lost loved ones:

" He sees Death triumphing in the world, Death which was not created by God," Fr. Bozidar observes, "It has reigned and dominates, poisoning life, transforming it into a meaningless succession of days and relentless moments that are bound for the abyss. But God has shown us that He has power even over death. Christ Himself manifested it when he cried in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." This is the miracle of Love triumphing over death.

So that through this miracle it became impossible not to believe, and whoever believes in God and lives in Him, that is, keeps His commandments, will rise again and never die."

The point of humility and acceptance, despite appearances and rational perception, is to leave ourselves in God's hands. And this, in Father Bozidar's words, means "to be able to say, not only in words, but also with faith in our heart and with our whole being, like Martha, 'Yes, Lord, I believe.


"Henceforth, God is continually showing us things that seem to be beyond our logic, beyond our mind, which cannot contain all the miracles He has performed. Though people at the time lived by their faith. They saw, for example, the appearance of angels, healings of such diseases that were not then healed, even the Resurrection itself, because the Gospel says that he raised up many people. Then we also begin to marvel at the fact that God himself in his love and condescension subjects himself to the most terrible thing - death. We cannot fathom the wonders and mind and full works of God. We cannot even fathom infinity. Thus, continually convincing us that what is impossible for man is possible for God."




Translated and published by Elizabeth Radkova



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Some of the rock churches are open to tourists

The valley of the monks: The churches in the valley of Rusenski Lom and its tributaries

In Northeastern Bulgaria the river Rusenski Lom and its tributaries – Cherni, Beli and Malki Lom – have carved out a rugged rocky landscape with hidden caves and hushed valleys where the only sound is that of the birdsong. People have settled in..

published on 7/22/25 1:05 PM
Metropolitan Joseph, head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the USA, Canada, and Australia

Metropolitan Joseph, blessed the new Parish Council of the Holy Trinity Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Madison

His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph, head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the USA, Canada, and Australia, has blessed the newly elected Parish Council of the Holy Trinity Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Madison, Illinois. The new council was elected..

published on 7/21/25 3:11 PM
The monument at Petrova Niva in Strandzha in honor of the heroes of the Ilinden-Preobrazhensko Uprising

On the sacrifice and redemption in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising

The revival of Bulgarian statehood after five centuries of Ottoman rule is connected with the April Uprising of 1876 and the Internal Revolutionary Organization previously created by Vasil Levski. After the Treaty of Berlin of 1878, the Bulgarians..

published on 7/20/25 9:43 AM