This Friday, April 10, is the last day of Great Lent. Our Lenten Journey which began weeks ago when we asked forgiveness of one another ends with our commemoration of Jesus raising His friend Lazarus from the dead. Thus Lent ends and we enter into a new liturgical cycle – that of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. These two events – our Lord’s raising of Lazarus from the dead and His entrance into Jerusalem – are kept liturgically as one event (they share the same Troparion) since St. John in his Gospel links the two together with the resurrection of Lazarus explaining the heroic welcome Christ receives when He enters into Jerusalem (John 11:1-12:19). In the Orthodox Church, the penitential tone of Great Lent is interrupted by the keeping of the two day Feast (The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem is one of the Twelve Major Feasts of the Orthodox Year and on this day the strict fast is lifted allowing both wine and fish to be eaten for the Feast). When Palm Sunday ends, we enter into Holy Week and meditation on the Passion of 
Christ. On Lazarus Saturday, we hear in the Gospel Lesson that our Lord Jesus was deeply troubled not only by the death of His friend Lazarus but also by the grief and sorrow he saw in Martha and Mary. In John 11:33, the text says that Jesus “groaned in the spirit.” Orthodox commentators on this passage from the time of St Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444AD) noted that the Greek word in the 11:33 for Christ’s groaning is a very strong word implying anger and indignation. St. Cyril believed Christ, the Son of God, was angry that the humanity He had created in His own image and likeness at the beginning of creation was now helplessly subject to death. Moreover, St. Cyril felt that Christ, the incarnate God, felt the indignation of His own divinity being limited by His humanity and thus unable at that moment to bring an end to death’s tyranny over humanity. Christ’s own humanity trembled at the outrage experienced by the incarnate Son of God – this is what “groaned in the spirit” means. This experience of feeling humanly helpless and yet as Lord angrily indignant about the condition of humanity will help Christ get through His own agony in the garden on the Mount of Olives (Luke 22:39-44) as he awaited His own crucifixion by which He would destroy death.
Fraternized 