John 11

¹Now there was a man who was ill—Lazarus from Bethany, from the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ²(This Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.) ³So the sisters sent word to him, saying, "Lord, look—the one you love is ill."

⁴But when Jesus heard this, he said, "This illness is not destined for death, but rather for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." ⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he actually remained in the place where he was for two more days. ⁷Then after this he says to the disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."

⁸The disciples say to him, "Rabbi, the Judeans were just now trying to stone you, and you're going back there again?" ⁹Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰But if anyone walks during the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."

¹¹He said these things, and after this he tells them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awaken him." ¹²So the disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." ¹³Jesus had been speaking about his death, but they supposed that he was speaking about the rest that comes from sleep. ¹⁴So then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died, ¹⁵and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." ¹⁶Then Thomas, the one called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, so that we may die with him."

¹⁷When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away. ¹⁹Many of the Judeans had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, while Mary remained sitting in the house.

²¹Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." ²³Jesus says to her, "Your brother will rise again." ²⁴Martha says to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." ²⁵Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die—not ever. Do you believe this?" ²⁷She says to him, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."

²⁸And having said this, she went away and called her sister Mary privately, saying, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." ²⁹When she heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹So the Judeans who were with her in the house, consoling her, when they saw Mary get up quickly and go out, followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

³²Then when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." ³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Judeans who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled within himself. ³⁴He said, "Where have you laid him?" They say to him, "Lord, come and see." ³⁵Jesus wept.

³⁶So the Judeans were saying, "See how much he loved him!" ³⁷But some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have done something so that this man would not die?"

³⁸Then Jesus, again deeply moved within himself, comes to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹Jesus says, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the one who had died, says to him, "Lord, by now there will be a stench, for it has been four days." ⁴⁰Jesus says to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"

⁴¹So they removed the stone. Then Jesus lifted his eyes upward and said, "Father, I thank you that you heard me. ⁴²I myself knew that you always hear me, but I spoke because of the crowd standing around, so that they may believe that you sent me." ⁴³And having said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"

⁴⁴The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with strips of linen, and his face wrapped with a burial cloth. Jesus says to them, "Unbind him and let him go."

⁴⁵Therefore many of the Judeans who had come to Mary and had seen what he did believed in him. ⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

⁴⁷So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the council and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. ⁴⁸If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." ⁴⁹But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all. ⁵⁰You do not even consider that it is better for you that one man should die for the people than that the whole nation should perish."

⁵¹Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation— ⁵²and not only for the nation, but also in order to gather into one the scattered children of God. ⁵³So from that day on they resolved to kill him.

⁵⁴Therefore Jesus no longer walked about openly among the Judeans, but went away from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with the disciples.

⁵⁵Now the Passover of the Judeans was near, and many went up to Jerusalem from the countryside before the Passover to purify themselves. ⁵⁶So they were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, "What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?" ⁵⁷Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, they should report it, so that they might arrest him.