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Reading the Raising of Lazarus Together (John 11) (Patreon)

Published:
2021-05-02 08:46:44
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Raskolnikov urges Sonya to read him the story of the raising of Lazarus.

And we're in the room with them, candlelight flickering, fervently listening, in need of salvation.

If you have the Vintage Edition translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky, we're at Part 4, Chapter 4 - 324.

And here are some links to the King James version of the Lazarus story and the New Living Testament Version:

Timestamps

  • 0:00 the story of Lazarus (John 11)
  • 1:25 Dostoyevsky’s difficulty of detail
  • 2:30 we’re complicit in Raskolnikov’s crime - and salvation
  • 3:00 why this story meant so much to Dostoyevsky
  • 3:30 how to read synoptically
  • 11:00 Jesus deliberately delaying his arrival (the nature of salvation)
  • 12:00 Raskolnikov is Lazarus
  • 13:00 what Dostoyevsky chooses to hide from the reader
  • 14:00 daylight symbolism God’s will (and stumbling in the darkness)
  • 16:40 “he who believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live”
  • 17:30 the other Lazarus 
  • 18:30 the metaphor of being "dead", then coming back to life
  • 19:00 being present, never dying, and accessing eternal life
  • 20:14 on "Jesus wept" being the shortest verse 
  • 24:00 connecting the story of Lazarus to your own life

Do you think Raskolnikov will rise from the dead?

Files

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Comments

Bill Freeman

The entire Gospel of John, written around 120AD, is such a rich development of the faith of the early Christian community. This particular story is so wonderful, playing with John's underlying theme of light and darkness (harkening to the Genesis creation myth of out of darkness, light comes drawn by the Creator's life-giving breath). This story functions are a complete summary of the entire Christ story and the foundational beliefs of the early Church. This and similar stand-alone stories would have been part of the oral tradition sharing at Eucharist in home churches long before these words were written. You are so insightful seeing the Buddhist theme of the ever-present NOW-- the essential message of Jesus -- the Kingdom of God is within us and is NOW as ever-present NOW. How we have drifted so far away from the clarity of this pristine message. Jesus NEVER founded an institution but called us/reminded us of our divine, innate nature. I love how this story begins with Mary and Martha calling Jesus to Lazarus, "the one love is dead." Love ontologically changes the dead to life and darkness into light. May it be so.

hardcoreliterature
>>59473775

Wow. What a beautiful comment. This reveals such a deep and wide reading, engagement, and thought over years. Thank you so much. Absolutely agree - and I actually cannot read much of the Bible without seeing it as a Buddhist text ---> "the Kingdom of God is within us and is NOW as ever-present NOW" 1000%

Bill Freeman
>>59473775

Ben - How wise to read scripture within the frame of Buddhism. A wonderful book is Thich Nhat Hahn's "Living Buddha, Living Christ," (20th Anniversary Ed.). Riverhead Books. I have highlights throughout my book that I revisit often. I have done the same with Thich Nhat Hahn's "Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers." Riverhead Books. This book speaks to the reality of a new dawning of consciousness that you recently discussed -- the "no-self, inter-are" reality. "The Holy Spirit is something to be cultivated, and the seeds of the Holy Spirit are already within you . . . Every time you touch the seed of mindfulness and mindfulness manifest in you, life is possible again. In a state of distraction, body and mind are not together. IF you are lost in the future or in the past, you are not alive. But when the seed of mindfulness in you is touched, suddenly you become alive, body and spirit together. You are born again. Jesus is born again. The Buddha is born again . . . Redemption and resurrection are neither words nor objects of belief. They are our daily practice. And we practice in such a way that Buddha is born every moment of our daily life, that Jesus Christ is born every moment of our daily life -- not only on Christmas day because every day is Christmas day, but every minute is also a Christmas minute. The child with us is waiting every minute for us to be born again and again." (pp. 90-92).

Anonymous

I was blown away by Part IV. Sonya's reading of Lazarus is where this book finally “arrived” for me – and when I finally grasped Dostoevsky’s genius. Throughout the scene there were “flashes within me like lightning” (Raskolinkov’s own terms) because I was finally confronting the power of the Gospel of John, truly for the first time (and this is coming from a lifelong cafeteria Catholic). Reading this chapter calls to mind the only time I’ve felt something similar, which was the first time I encountered Caravaggio’s “The Calling of Matthew,” in that I could momentarily glimpse the ineffable “light” of Christianity. The fact that Dostoevsky can articulate this beautiful sensation in language, to express the inexpressible… it’s difficult for me to comprehend, and for the first time so far in this book I’m bowing down to the work of a genius. I also need to point my favorite line in the novel so far, which comes toward the tail end of the Lazarus reading on page 328: “The candle-end had long been burning out in the bent candlestick, casting a dim light in the destitute room upon the murderer and the harlot strangely come together over the reading of the eternal book.” And now juxtapose that with John 12:35, just after the raising of Lazarus: Jesus therefore said to them, while you have the light, that darkness may not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” While I love the image of the Skull and Cross on the cover of my C&P Vintage edition, perhaps a bent candlestick with a dim light would make for an even better cover!