John 11

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

(And it was this Mary who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick).

Therefore the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, look! The man who is your friend is sick.”

But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not ending in death, but is to the glory of God, so that the Son of God will be glorified by it.”

Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus,

so when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was.

Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.”

The disciples say to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not 12 hours in the day? If anyone walks around during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

But if anyone walks around in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

He said this, and after that he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.”

Therefore the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”

Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep.

Therefore Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.

And I rejoice for your sakes that I was not there, so that you can believe. But let’s go to him.”

Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s also go, that we can die with him.”

So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already.

Now Bethany was near to Jerusalem, about one and three quarters miles off,

and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.

Then Martha, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.

Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

And even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise up.”

Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise up in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live even if he dies,

and whoever lives and believes in me will not ever die in the age to come. Do you believe this?”

She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the One coming into the world.”

And when she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying in secret, “The Teacher is here, and is calling for you.”

And she, when she heard it, got up quickly and went to him.

(Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met him).

Then the Jews who were with her in the house and were comforting her, when they saw Mary, that she got up quickly and went out, followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to cry there.

Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Now when Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who came with her also crying, he was deeply angered in the spirit, and was troubled,

and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”

Jesus burst into tears.

Then the Jews said, “Look how he was a friend to him!”

But some of them said, “Was not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, able to have done something so that this man would not have died?”

Then Jesus, again deeply angered within himself, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be a bad odor, for he has been dead four days.”

Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me.

And I knew that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing around, I said it so they believe that you sent me.”

And when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a handkerchief. Jesus said to them, “Loose him and let him go.”

Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he did, believed in him.

But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things that Jesus had done.

Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we to do? For this man is doing many signs.

If 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.”

But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,

nor do you take into account that it is better for you to have one man die for the People, and not that the whole nation should perish.”

(Now he did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,

and not for the nation only, but also to gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.)

So from that day on they made plans to kill him.

Therefore Jesus did not walk openly among the Jews any more, but went from there to the region near the desert, to a city called Ephraim, and he stayed there with the disciples.

Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.

So they were looking for Jesus, and were saying to one another as they stood in the Temple, “What do you think? Surely he will not come to the feast, will he?”

Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command that if anyone knew where he was, he was to report it so they could arrest him.