This most powerful healing story – perhaps the ultimate miracle with the raising of a man four-days dead – begins so simply with a description of the fact that a man called Lazarus was ill. Most of our English biblical names have come to us via the Latin Vulgate translation. In the original Hebrew, Lararus would have been called El’Azar – which means God helps and he lived with his two sisters Miryam and Marta in Bethany (or Biet’Anyah, which means ‘house of the afflicted’) – an appropriate place for someone who was ill. El’Azar then becomes a sign for anyone who is afflicted in anyway, and who needs the help of God. So why does Yeshua (Jesus) wait two days to visit his beloved friends?
Recorded at St Francis Xavier Cathedral, 9.00am (12’06”)
Lent Sunday 5A. John 11:1-45