Last Days of Jesus Christ!
The last days of the life of Jesus Christ are filled with lessons for our souls to learn and share. The gospels are not unanimous in sharing a specific chronology of those last days but one event in addition to Palm Sunday stands out: Raising Lazarus from the dead.
It is believed that the one single event that sealed Jesus’ fate on the cross was raising Lazarus from dead. Lazarus with his two sisters, Martha and Mary, lived in Bethany which was but a short distance from Jerusalem. The account in the gospels indicate that friends from nearby Jerusalem were present in mourning Lazarus’ death when Jesus arrived at the family’s home. He came in response to a message sent to him days earlier that Lazarus, a dear friend, was dangerously ill. The account makes it clear that Jesus delayed intentionally knowing intuitively the importance and difficulty of what was to happen.
The scene described in the gospels was very dramatic! Ordering the stone against Lazarus’ tomb to be removed (against the concerns and objections of the sisters that he’d been dead for FOUR DAYS!), then looking up in prayer to God, he commanded in a loud voice that Lazarus should come out. Indeed, Lazarus did: wrapped in his burial shroud covering even his face. Jesus ordered that the wrappings be removed. The crowd was beside itself in amazement, and, of course, in joy.
Some of the witnesses immediately rushed back to Jerusalem whereupon the religious authorities heard the news. This was BIG and the priests feared a frenzied uprising with the crowds proclaiming Jesus their king. With the insistence of Caiphas, the chief priest, they determined that it was best that one man die than their whole nation be suppressed by the Romans in retaliation.
Lazarus and his sisters were evidently very close friends, and disciples, of Jesus. The story indicates that Jesus, too, was anguished both by Lazarus’ loss and, I suspect, with the knowledge that this incredible miraculous act was to be the “last straw” of his life.
The fear of the priests was partially validated by Jesus’ triumphant entry on the donkey on what we call Palm Sunday. While the humble donkey hinted that here is spiritual king not a worldly one, the shouts of acclaim were enough for the priests to feel justified in their fears.
Raising Lazarus symbolizes raising the soul from the tomb of its ignorance. Jesus’ love for Lazarus is an admission that we cannot help but feel some attachment to our ego, body and personality. Jesus’ obvious “pain” in doing this suggests the intensity of effort required, with God’s grace, to raise the dead soul from its tomb of ego. Like Arjuna in the Mahabharata who was reluctant to fight his kinsmen (his material attachments and traits), Jesus, in the role of the wise ego, hesitates, knowing the effort and struggle that will be needed.
Sometimes we prefer to hide the lamp of our soul under the bushel of anonymity, fearing both scorn from others who might view our goodness as pride and also fearing that we might fall from grace by subsequent actions. It takes courage to act dharmically and if Jesus’ life and last days are testimony to many things, they are also testimony to the courage to do what is right and required.
Tomorrow: Palm Sunday
May the sun of soul-courage rise in the East of your consciousness!
Nayaswami Hriman