John
Chapter 11
1 A man named Lazarus from the town of Bethany, where Mary and her sister Martha lived, was sick.
2 Mary, who put perfume on Jesus and dried his feet with her hair, had a brother named Lazarus who was ill.
3 So his sisters sent a message to him, saying, “Lord, look, the one you love is sick.”
4 When Jesus heard this, he said, “This illness will not lead to death. It is for God’s glory, so that God’s Son may be honored through it.”
5 Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.
6 After hearing that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the same place he was.
7 After that, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”
8 His followers asked him, “Teacher, recently the Jews wanted to stone you; and you’re going back there?”
9 Jesus answered, “Isn’t there twelve hours in a day? If someone walks during the day, they won’t stumble because they see the world’s light.”
10 If someone walks at night, they trip because there’s no light inside them.
11 He said these things, and then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus is sleeping; but I am going to wake him up.”
12 Then his followers said, “Master, if he is sleeping, he will get better.”
13 However, Jesus was talking about his death; but they thought he was talking about resting by sleeping.
14 Jesus told them clearly, “Lazarus is dead.”
15 I am happy for you that I wasn’t there, so you might believe; but let’s go to him now.
16 Then Thomas, also known as Didymus, told the other disciples, “Let’s go too, so we can die with him.”
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that the man had been in the tomb for four days.
18 Bethany was close to Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs away.
19 Many Jews visited Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.
20 Martha, when she heard Jesus was coming, went to meet him; but Mary stayed in the house.
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
22 I know that even now, whatever you ask from God, He will give it to you.
23 Jesus said to her, Your brother will live again.
24 Martha said to him, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus told her, “I am the one who brings people back to life, and I am life itself. Anyone who believes in me will live, even if they die.
26 Anyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord: I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
28 After saying this, she left and quietly told her sister Mary, “The Teacher has arrived and is asking for you.”
29 As soon as she heard that, she got up fast and went to him.
30 Jesus had not entered the town yet; he was still in the place where Martha met him.
31 The Jews who were with her in the house, comforting her, saw Mary get up quickly and leave. They followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to cry.”
32 When Mary arrived 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.”
33 When Jesus saw her crying and the Jews who came with her crying too, he felt deeply moved and was upset.
34 And asked, “Where have you placed him?” They replied, “Sir, come and see.”
35 Jesus cried.
36 Then the Jewish people said, “Look how much he cared for him!”
37 Some of them asked, “Couldn’t this man, who made blind people see, have stopped this man from dying?”
38 Jesus, feeling deep sadness again, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone placed over the entrance.
39 Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the man who had died, said to him, “God, by now there will be a bad smell because he has been dead for four days.”
40 Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see God’s glory?”
41 They removed the stone from where the dead person was placed. Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me.”
42 I know you always hear me, but I said this for the people here, so they will believe you sent me.
43 After he said this, he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 The dead man came out, tied up at the hands and feet with burial cloths, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. Jesus told them, “Untie him and let him go.”
45 Many Jews who visited Mary and saw what Jesus did started to believe in him.
46 Some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47 The chief priests and Pharisees met and said, “What should we do? This man performs many miracles.”
48 If we leave him alone, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our positions and our country.
49 One of them, named Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, told them, “You don’t understand anything.”
50 We must realize it’s better for us that one man dies for the people, so the whole nation doesn’t get destroyed.
51 He didn’t say this on his own; as the high priest that year, he predicted that Jesus would die for the nation.
52 Not just for that nation, but also to unite all of God’s children who were spread out.
53 From that day on, they planned together to kill him.
54 So Jesus didn’t walk openly among the Jews anymore. Instead, he went to a region near the wilderness, to a city named Ephraim, and stayed there with his followers.
55 The Jewish Passover was soon to happen, and many people left the countryside to go to Jerusalem before the Passover to make themselves clean.
56 They looked for Jesus and asked each other as they stood in the temple, “What do you think, will he not come to the celebration?”
57 The chief priests and the Pharisees had ordered that if anyone knew where he was, they should tell so they could arrest him.