Description
This 16th century icon is a part of a celebrated set of festal icons showing important events in the life of Jesus plus a few other renowned feasts of the year. It was painted by George the Cretan for the Holy Monastery of Dionysiou on Mount Athos, and together they are known to be great examples of Post-Byzantine Greek iconographic art. This icon is the sixth of that set of icons.
The Lord of Life raised Lazarus from the dead after he had been in the grave for four days, so he had started to decompose. He waited purposefully those days before returning to Judea. Jesus even wept over him, though He always knew what He was going to do. When Christ went on the Sabbath to Lazarus’ tomb, a deep cave in the rock on the way down from Bethany to Jerusalem near the Garden of Gethsemane, He called Lazarus back to life by His Creative Word. This was a great miracle, but those whose hearts were hardened then wanted to kill both Jesus and Lazarus because this public miracle was influencing many to believe in Christ. In this icon Mary and Martha kneel down before Christ as Lazarus, their brother, comes forth from his tomb.