John

Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead

There was a sick man named Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha

Mary was the one who anointed the LORD with perfumed oil and wiped his feet with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was ill.

So the sisters sent this message to Jesus:

“LORD, the one you love is ill.”

On hearing this, Jesus said:

“This illness will not end in death; rather, it is for God’s glory, and the Son of God will be glorified through it.”

It is a fact that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus;

yet, after he heard of the illness of Lazarus, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Only then did he say to his disciples:

“Let us go into Judea again.”

They replied:

“Rabbi, recently the Jews wanted to stone you. Are you going there again?”

Jesus said to them:

“Are not twelve working hours of daylight? Those who walk in the daytime shall not stumble, for they see the light of this world.

But those who walk at night stumble, for there is no light in them.”

After that, Jesus said to them:

“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him up.”

The disciples replied:

“LORD, a sick person who sleeps will recover.”

But Jesus had referred to Lazarus’ death, while they thought that he had meant the repose of sleep.

So Jesus said plainly:

“Lazarus is dead;

and for your sake, I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Then Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples:

“Let us also go to die with him.”

When Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days.

As Bethany is near Jerusalem, about two miles away,

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

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him while Mary remained sitting in the house.

Martha said to Jesus:

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

Jesus said:

“Your brother will rise again.”

Martha replied:

“I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.”

Jesus told her:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, will live.

Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha then answered:

“Yes, LORD, I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.”

After that, Martha went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying:

“The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

As soon as Mary heard this, she rose and went to him.

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

The Jews, who were with Mary in the house consoling her, also came. When they saw her get up and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep.

When Mary came to the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said:

“LORD, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, who had come with her, he was moved to the depths of his spirit and troubled.

Then he asked:

“Where have you laid him?”

They answered:

“LORD, come and see.”

Jesus wept.

The Jews said:

“See how he loved him!”

But some of them said:

“If he could open the eyes of the blind man, could he not have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus, again deeply moved, drew near to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

Jesus said:

“Take the stone away.”

Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him:

“LORD, by now there is a stench, for this is the fourth day.”

Jesus replied:

“Have I not told you that, if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

So they removed the stone.

Jesus raised his eyes and said:

“Father, I thank you for hearing me.

I know that you always hear me, but my prayer was for the sake of these people that they may believe that you sent me.”

When Jesus had said this, he cried out in a loud voice:

“Lazarus, come out!”

The dead man came out; his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them:

“Untie him, and let him go.”

Many of the Jews who had come with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw what he did;

but some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

So the chief priests and the Pharisees called together the Council. They said:

“What are we to do? For this man keeps on performing many signs.

If we let him go on like this, all the people will believe in him and, as a result of this, the Romans will come and destroy our holy place and our nation.”

Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up:

“You know nothing at all!

You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to let the whole nation be destroyed.”

In saying this, Caiaphas did not speak for himself, but being high priest that year, he foretold like a prophet that Jesus would die for the nation

and not for the nation only, but also would die to gather into one the scattered children of God.

So, from that day on, they were determined to kill him.

Because of this, Jesus no longer moved about freely among the Jews. He withdrew instead to the region near the desert and stayed with his disciples in a town called Ephraim.

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and people from everywhere were coming to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover.

They looked for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple, they talked with one another:

“What do you think? Will he come to the festival?”

Meanwhile, the chief priests and the elders had given orders that anyone who knew where he was should let them know so that they could arrest him.