Setting off the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, the small village of Bethany is located approximately three kilometers from Jerusalem which offered an oasis of rest for the tired travelers, distant, but not too far from the commotion of the city. Here the three siblings; Martha, Mary, and Lazarus lived, by whom Jesus was often received. Today this small town’s name in Arabic is El-Azarije, which it received from Lazarus. Contemporary graves guard the remembrance of his resurrection which is visited by thousands of Christian pilgrims to this day.

The story of Lazarus is the key for one of the secrets of life: what waits for us in the moment of death? A great journey as Egyptians thought? Or the kingdom of Hades rowing through the Styx? Or we possibly find ourselves in one of the bundles of Dante’s Inferno? Or we reincarnate again and again in all sorts of forms of living beings until we reach Nirvana? So what is the truth? What happens to us when we die? The secret of the grave of Bethany urges us to look for the answer for life after death together, from the Bible!