The most striking feature I have come across about Jesus Christ is resurrection. In Larnaca in Cyprus I came across what to many living there must seem normal religious life in the form of their landmark church building the building of the Church of Saint Lazarus where there is housed the remains of the tomb believed to have belonged to Lazarus, a bishop of ancient Cyprus who is believed to be the man who was raised from the dead by Jesus. Just before this Lazarus left Judea to flee to Cyprus there was another resurrection too, that of Jesus Himself. The story is recorded that Lazarus fled persecution death threats in Judea and arrived in Cyprus where he lived another few decades and became a bishop. So the tomb, even though the body was reportedly moved to Marseille centuries later, is a second tomb of Lazarus whose first tomb is mentioned in scripture. He was twice buried after Jesus raised him from the dead but still kept him mortal. When Jesus Himself died and rose it was an end to Jesus’ mortality beginning His immorality. Not so Lazarus, not that first resurrection he underwent but another awaits him. So this remarkable evidence, traditionally established by the Orthodox Church, left to us as reminders of Jesus, shows us Jesus the resurrection and the resurrector. The hope of the nations. Thanks be to God.
