ON DEATH IN HEARTBREAK

John 11:1-45 The Raising of Lazarus / Muse Lee, Aaron Reed ARISTOS: The Musical / The Mountain Goats No Children (lyrics) William Adolphe Bourguereau Homer and His Guide (painting) / unknown / Joan Didion / @/sunlightafterdark (on instagram) / The Mountain Goats Sax Rohmer #1

The Raising of Lazarus of Bethany

(Icon by Tatiana Nikolova-Houston)

The Raising of Lazarus

Sebastiano del Piombo

Oil on wood, transferred to canvas, 1517–1519

Today does double duty as Lazarus Saturday and April Fools’ Day. I’ve written before about how peculiar I find the story of the resurrection of Lazarus. According to the chronology in the Gospel of John, it occurred the day before Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday – a bit of razzle-dazzle showmanship guaranteed to rally the crowds and alarm the Establishment. But raising someone from the dead is either no joke or the greatest joke of all for the resurrectee. Unless you have some compelling reason (you can’t find the combination to the safe, you want me to finish the story I was telling, you think I might have left the stove on) please, please, please, once I’m gone, do not bring me back. 

The Raising of Lazarus by Fernando Gallego, an altarpiece panel from the Cathedral of Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain, painted between 1480 and 1488. From the Samuel H. Kress collection at the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson. The detail images show a bewildered Lazarus sitting up in his sarcophagus, Jesus with hovering disciples (prominently, a very youthful John), and adoring sister Mary or Martha, with a toothy grin. 

Rembrandt - The Raising of Lazarus, c. 1642.

Prompt 195

“Oh. It’s you.” 

The entity that had been summoned practically growled, a cloak like swirling galaxies- or was it swirling galaxies molded into a cloak- shimmering around their form. One pair of arms crossed over a chest where a star pulsed with the heartbeat of universes, alive yet dying as lazarus green eyes glowered down at the league and bats alike. 

“You know you could, fucking call, right?” they whined, aura of terror suddenly broken, unnatural fear torn away and leaving all of them wrong-footed and confused.

Well, apparently all of them except for Ras, who had an honest to fuck grin on his face, one that looks almost carefree, if a little feral. Nope. No thanks. Not this timeline-

“But phones didn’t exist last we spoke, ya ‘amar.” 

The Raising of Lazarus, Léon Bonnat, 1857

"I'm the One who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition." - Castiel

Happy September 18th everyone!!! 15 years ago we got this amazing character!

dean winchester is (about to be) saved

"And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And when He thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth." (She read loudly, cold and trembling with ecstasy, as though she were seeing it before her eyes.) "Bound hand and foot with graveclothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and let him go. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did believed on Him." She could read no more, closed the book and got up from her chair quickly.

Do people's souls have gender, do you think?

Yes, I do. Our souls are not intended to exist separately from our bodies.

It's not a perfect comparison, but consider a circle. The abstract or mathematical Form "circle" is real, but it is always expressed in Matter. One cannot encounter or possess a circle in the abstract, but one does encounter and possess a real wooden dowel, a rubber tire, or a porcelain plate.

Souls are much the same. They are spiritually real, but intended to always be expressed in bodies. If a body is male, that says something about the soul it is expressing. If a body is female, that says something about the soul it is expressing.

And much like a plate that is shattered ceases to be a complete circle, a soul severed from its body ceases to be a complete human being. This is why we all know and feel that death is a tragedy. After death, we are still ourselves, but only our Formal selves until Christ returns and resurrects + glorifies our bodies (yes, the same bodies we have today). If our souls were so separate from our bodies as to render sex irrelevant, there would be no reason for God to do this, rather than create for us totally new bodies perhaps with opposite sexes from our earthly ones.

The Raising of Lazarus

Jan Lievens

oil on canvas, 1631

1.06 | Cold Lazarus

“Let me put it nicely…get me the hell out of here!”

Jan Andrea Lievens - The Raising of Lazarus, 1630

Destiel but Cas is one of those angels that forgot he was an angel and became a priest who helped hunters, and that's how he and Dean meet

Jesus at Bethany

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. — John 12:1 | Modern English Version (MEV) The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House. Cross References: Matthew 21:17; Matthew 26:6; Mark 14:3; Luke 7:37; John 11:43; John 11:55; John 12:9