The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me... for He... sent me... to preach liberation to the captives... to set the exhausted free.

This indignation in the world is unprecedented: never have any people been so indignant against death, have never thrown such a challenge in its face; only one man, Jesus, in all mankind, rose up to death, as Mighty against the strong, Free against the enslaver.

The inner meaning of the whole miracle-sign is here: victory over death, the law of nature – the law of "logical identity", mechanical causality (a + b + c = a + b + c + x); the overcoming of the law by freedom – the miracle of the Resurrection. Here Jesus is the Miracle Worker – the Deliverer.

XXX

What is the meaning of this ever-increasing duality, which seems to be insoluble for us in John's testimony and, as we delve deeper into it: History is a Mystery; was – was not; Is he resurrected – is he not resurrected? To understand this, let us recall the word bl. Augustine:

John drank secretly from the heart of the Lord;

ex ilio pectore in secreto biberat. [605]

That this is really so, we will see from the Last Supper, where, "falling down to the heart of Jesus," John drank from him the bitterest mystery of betrayal (John 13:23-26). And if so, then John could have known a lot that the other disciples did not know. Judging by some signs or at least hints from the synoptics themselves (Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, an old secret friend of Jesus; the secret night refuge of the Lord in Bethany, it seems, in the house of Lazarus; the unknown owner of the house in Jerusalem must also be an old friend of Jesus, who prepared the upper room for the Last Supper), judging by such hints, the connection is deeper and older than the synoptics know or consider it necessary to talk about it, connects Jesus with Jerusalem. Consequently, between the two points of view – the Galilean one, according to the Synoptics, and the Jerusalem, in the Fourth Gospel, there is no such contradiction at all as it seemed before, but now it seems less and less even to some of the left-wing critics. [606] It is very probable that Jesus spent many days, perhaps even weeks, if not months, in Jerusalem, besides the last Passover. It seems that it is from these Jerusalem days that John flows, inaccessible to the synoptics, the source of historically authentic traditions – memories. [607] To them, perhaps, belongs an event, small in the outward, great in the inner life of the Lord – in the secret life of His heart – the death of Lazarus, His "friend", as He Himself calls him:

Lazarus, our friend, fell asleep (John 11:11),

one of the only three people besides John of whom Jesus is said to have "loved" them (John, 11:3, 5, 36). The historical authenticity of John's testimony of Jesus' love for the sisters of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, is also confirmed by the Third Gospel, which is closest to the Fourth.

XXXI

In the twilight of Sunday morning, as well as in the twilight of Church tradition, three female images mysteriously merge for us: Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, from whom the Lord cast out seven demons and who, having become His disciple, "served Him in her name" (Luke 8:2-3), and the unknown one who poured myrrh on the Body of the Lord, "prepared Him for burial" (Mark 14:14). 3-9), – perhaps the same sinner of whom it is said:

many of her sins are forgiven her, because she loved much. (Luke 7:36-50).

Wonderfully, terribly, and holy, these three faces merge for us, not only over the tomb of Lazarus, but also over the tomb of the Lord Himself. The first human being to see the risen Christ was not he, but she; not Peter, not John, but Mary. Next to Jesus is Mary, next to the Unknown is the Unknown.