The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)

Jesus Raises Lazarus (from ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’)

leeduigon(patty)April 4, 2021

This is another thing I like to post every Easter: Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, in The Greatest Story Ever Told. The emotional impact of this scene speaks for itself.

Why did Jesus do miraculous works? So that they would be a witness to whom and what He is. We have the Scriptures, we have the works, we have eyewitness testimony, and we have the Holy Spirit: Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior.

And here is where the Bible parts company with pious pagan fictions: John 11: 39:

Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

This kind of realism would not enter fiction for centuries yet to come.

The Messiah Has Come!

leeduigon(patty)April 16, 2017

I am writing this through tears of joy.

Yes, “Bible movies” can be problematic, and are certainly no substitute for Scripture. Nevertheless, this scene from The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), in which Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead–well, what can I say? I’m overcome!

This helps me to imagine what it would have been like to have been there, on the scene, to witness this miracle. It would have been overwhelming.

If you cannot believe in Jesus by the things He said, or by the things the prophets said about Him–then believe in Him for the sake of the works which He did, which no one else could ever do. This is what He taught us.

Amen!

When Jesus Raised Lazarus

leeduigon(patty)March 27, 2016

I’m so glad I was able to find this for you today–this scene from The Greatest Story Ever Told, 1965, in which Christ raises Lazarus from the dead.

Shortly before God the Father raised Him, Our Lord raised his friend Lazarus, and called him out of his tomb to live again, so prefiguring His own resurrection.

Notice His prayer, in which we find echoes of Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of the dry bones.

And when the dead man is restored to life, the people understand–some of them–that this is the Messiah who was long foretold, He has finally come: and racing to the gates of Jerusalem, to report the good news, we find the doubter, who now believes, the old blind man, who now can see, and the young cripple who can now run like the wind to delivering the glad tidings. And with it we are given the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s The Messiah.

Yes, yes, yes! He is risen! The Messiah has come, and He is risen indeed.

Let every knee be bowed to Him, and every tongue confess Him Lord. Amen!