The Lazarus Miracle

As night fell all the Jews were going through the Potter’s Field to build a fire. Swarms of bees floated around purple flowers and little village girls with blonde hair chased one another in circles around them. But a man ran out to the edge of town and in a loud voice called after them, "Lazarus! the dying one--you all know him! He’s dying again!” But those Jews kept going through the flowers to build their fire like they had heard nothing.

Jesus stood alone and looked down the hill overlooking the village. In those days Jesus rarely left the hill and he wore a red tunic. They never saw his body, but the village people caught glimpses of that red cloak flashing through the trees sometimes.

The day Lazarus died again a far off lightning flashed and a great thunder came. All the people looked toward the hill. Jesus shuffled among old olive trees, piling stones in small piles and arranging dry sticks in strange patterns on the ground, all the while remaining constant in his prayers.

Some people in the village said that they heard Jesus was deeply moved. Someone claimed to have seen him up there, moving about wildly among those trees, shaking his arms all around and his hair waved like a torn flag. People said they knew Jesus was working for Lazarus.

An old man went out one night. In the moonlight he walked along the edge of the Potter’s Field and started quietly up the hill where Jesus stayed. He stopped behind a holly bush there and looked up. Jesus had built a small tomb at the base of one of the olive trees. Inside he placed a small, wounded grey bird and sat cross-legged watching it die. The lamp Jesus carried with him shone in the fading light. The old man watched as Jesus knelt on the ground before the small tomb and watched the fast breathing bird.

When the old man returned to the village he went to see Martha, the sister of Lazarus. The old man told Martha that Jesus was not coming.

Martha reproached him, pointing her finger toward the light that could still be seen. She said that everyone knew Jesus stood through the night and watched over them. Lazarus would rise again, she said.

Out by the bumblebees with the Jews the sweet flowers droned.

The next morning the old man again called on Martha. He found her sitting at the feet of Lazarus with her hands in her hair. Martha looked up to the old man then looked out the window, pointing to one of the rosebushes growing out there. “Lazarus planted those.”

The old man shook his head. “Jesus is not coming.” He walked to the window. As he closed the shutters on Martha's window he saw Jesus’ red tunic appear then disappear through the trees. “He is not coming. Jesus saw you weeping. I know he saw you but he is not coming,”

"But the Lord is a good Lord, and today is the last day," said Martha. She put her face toward the floor and started moaning. She ran to the window and pulled the shutters back open. “I’ve learned how to pray and I pray!” She screamed toward the distant hill. “Do what is right, Lord!”

She turned to the old man. “You old fool! Where is the promise? He comes and raises Lazarus from the dead, to show even you old men the glory of the Lord. Even you old men, who have seen everything, that you, too, may believe. He says we must have faith, so we must have faith.” Martha stood over the old man. “My brother Lazarus always goes down roads he should not. Whether he is brave or a fool is not for me to say. But you, old man, should know by now that when the sun goes down in the morning it will come up!”

Later in the day the old man was working cutting down wild grasses that grew near the front door of Martha’s home when he heard loud voices coming from behind the house.

The few remaining Jews, those who had not yet followed the others out to the Potter’s Field, had gathered together before Martha.

They followed her when she tried to walk away. These remaining were the most Godful Jews, some of whom who were there the first time Martha had called out for and received the Lazarus miracle.

"Your brother has been shown more grace than any other man,” one of them said. “The air he has breathed and all the songs he sings of himself should be enough.”

“Or too much!” said another.

Martha said, "Only a short time ago you all entered our village, and were welcomed here as a flock of rare animals. Now look. You over there, as pretty as a woman! And you, with your tied up beard and silly hat. All of you! Who do you think you are? What do you want? For us to forget ourselves to see only your troubles?”

Then one of them said, “God would.”

Another said, “Do you not understand sacrifice?”

Martha began throwing stones and shouting at the Jews: “Go away from me! Go away from my house!“ The stones hit the Jews. “Go away from my house!”

The Jews covered their heads with their hands and ran away from Martha’s house. Some cursed her while others laughed.

Martha ran into the house, crying loud, and threw herself on the floor in Lazarus’ room. The old man sat in a chair and said nothing.

“God damn them! God damn all of them!” she cried. “and us? We’re damned by God, too! What is all of this? Joy comes to us only to be swallowed by a thousand times more pain. And there is no end to any of this. Why?”

The old man looked at Lazarus' lifeless body on the bed. He had begun to smell like death. Flies gathered at the corner of his eyes and came in and out of his partly opened mouth. Martha moaned on her knees, her forehead on the floor.

Suddenly Jesus’ face appeared in the window. He was smiling. His teeth were dirty and his hair was full of dead leaves. He reached his hand inside the window, held his palm up toward Lazarus and said, "Lazarus, do rise again in my name."

The old man stood. Martha pulled her hair from before her wide eyes.

And Lazarus rose.

Martha regained herself and became ecstatic, crying out loud in joy and putting her hands all over her brother’s cold body. She looked to the window where the dirty teeth of Jesus still smiled. “Oh sweet Jesus you are my Lord!” She ran out the door and around to the side of the house to the window where Jesus was standing. But he wasn’t there.

She turned toward the Potter's Field and saw him. She held her trembling hands over her mouth and cried.

Through a field going there she saw Jesus running wildly back toward his hill. His arms flailed madly as he went. He jumped sometimes for no reason his voice howled as though in some strange pain. His red tunic flowed and his hair waved behind him like a torn flag.

Over the next three days Lazarus regained his strength and slept well through the nights. On the fourth day there was a celebration and people came from miles around.

“It is strange. See? So many people rejoice again in the salvation of our poor brother Lazarus,” Martha remarked. “I wonder why?”

“Our God is a strange God,” someone heard the old man say. “One shouldn‘t wonder about such things.”

Children ran in circles and sang songs. Bakers baked and women forgot for a while their modesty and held up the ends of their skirts, dancing in the streets. The men forgot for a while their anger over such things and found pleasure in the spectacle. The sun shone beautifully and small grey birds flew all around, lighting on the tops of houses then flying up to the hill where Jesus stayed. Lazarus smiled at everyone and Martha cried.

At the end of the day, after everyone had gone home, Lazarus walked alone watching dry dust rise from beneath his footsteps. In the evening he went back to Martha's house, went into his room and laid down on the bed. He watched out the window, the same one Jesus had appeared in, as the sun went down and the moon came up.

That night all the Jews were going through the Potter’s Field to build a fire. Swarms of bees floated around purple flowers and little village girls with blonde hair chased one another in circles around them. But a man ran out to the edge of town and in a loud voice called after them, "Lazarus! the dying one--you all know him! He’s dying again!” But those Jews kept going through the flowers to build their fire like they had heard nothing.

All the people looked toward the hill. Jesus shuffled among old olive trees, piling stones in small piles and arranging dry sticks in strange patterns on the ground, all the while remaining constant in his prayers.

Some people in the village said that they heard Jesus was deeply moved. Someone claimed to have seen him up there, moving about wildly among those trees, shaking his arms all around and his hair waved like a torn flag. People said they knew Jesus was working for Lazarus.