The Resurrection of Lazarus

168:2.1As this com­pany of some forty-five mor­tals stood be­fore the tomb, they could dimly see the form of Laz­a­rus, wrapped in linen ban­dages, rest­ing on the right lower niche of the burial cave. While these earth crea­tures stood there in al­most breath­less si­lence, a vast host of ce­les­tial be­ings had swung into their places prepara­tory to an­swer­ing the sig­nal for ac­tion when it should be given by Ga­briel, their com­man­der.

168:2.2Je­sus lifted up his eyes and said: “Fa­ther, I am thank­ful that you heard and granted my re­quest. I know that you al­ways hear me, but be­cause of those who stand here with me, I thus speak with you, that they may be­lieve that you have sent me into the world, and that they may know that you are work­ing with me in that which we are about to do.” And when he had prayed, he cried with a loud voice, “Laz­a­rus, come forth!”

168:2.3Though these hu­man ob­servers re­mained mo­tion­less, the vast ce­les­tial host was all astir in uni­fied ac­tion in obe­di­ence to the Cre­ator’s word. In just twelve sec­onds of earth time the hith­erto life­less form of Laz­a­rus be­gan to move and pres­ently sat up on the edge of the stone shelf whereon it had rested. His body was bound about with grave cloths, and his face was cov­ered with a nap­kin. And as he stood up be­fore them—alive—Je­sus said, “Loose him and let him go.”

168:2.4All, save the apos­tles, with Martha and Mary, fled to the house. They were pale with fright and over­come with as­ton­ish­ment. While some tar­ried, many has­tened to their homes.

168:2.5Laz­a­rus greeted Je­sus and the apos­tles and asked the mean­ing of the grave cloths and why he had awak­ened in the gar­den. Je­sus and the apos­tles drew to one side while Martha told Laz­a­rus of his death, burial, and res­ur­rec­tion. She had to ex­plain to him that he had died on Sun­day and was now brought back to life on Thurs­day, inas­much as he had had no con­scious­ness of time since falling asleep in death.

168:2.6As Laz­a­rus came out of the tomb, the Per­son­al­ized Ad­juster of Je­sus, now chief of his kind in this lo­cal uni­verse, gave com­mand to the for­mer Ad­juster of Laz­a­rus, now in wait­ing, to re­sume abode in the mind and soul of the res­ur­rected man.

168:2.7Then went Laz­a­rus over to Je­sus and, with his sis­ters, knelt at the Mas­ter’s feet to give thanks and of­fer praise to God. Je­sus, tak­ing Laz­a­rus by the hand, lifted him up, say­ing: “My son, what has hap­pened to you will also be ex­pe­ri­enced by all who be­lieve this gospel ex­cept that they shall be res­ur­rected in a more glo­ri­ous form. You shall be a liv­ing wit­ness of the truth which I spoke—I am the res­ur­rec­tion and the life. But let us all now go into the house and par­take of nour­ish­ment for these phys­i­cal bod­ies.”

168:2.8As they walked to­ward the house, Ga­briel dis­missed the ex­tra groups of the as­sem­bled heav­enly host while he made rec­ord of the first in­stance on Uran­tia, and the last, where a mor­tal crea­ture had been res­ur­rected in the like­ness of the phys­i­cal body of death.

168:2.9Laz­a­rus could hardly com­pre­hend what had oc­curred. He knew he had been very sick, but he could re­call only that he had fallen asleep and been awak­ened. He was never able to tell any­thing about these four days in the tomb be­cause he was wholly un­con­scious. Time is nonex­is­tent to those who sleep the sleep of death.

168:2.10Though many be­lieved in Je­sus as a re­sult of this mighty work, oth­ers only hard­ened their hearts the more to re­ject him. By noon the next day this story had spread over all Je­ru­sa­lem. Scores of men and women went to Beth­any to look upon Laz­a­rus and talk with him, and the alarmed and dis­con­certed Phar­isees hastily called a meet­ing of the San­hedrin that they might de­ter­mine what should be done about these new de­vel­op­ments.