John 11
1 There was a man who was sick, Lazarus, from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.
3 So the sisters sent word to him: “Lord, look, the one you love is sick.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This illness is not for death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.
6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days.
7 After this, he said to the disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”
8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, just now the Jews were trying to stone you, and you’re going back there?”
9 Jesus replied, “Aren’t there twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
10 But if anyone walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
11 He said this, and then added, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m going to wake him up.”
12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he’ll get better.”
13 Jesus had been speaking about his death, but they thought he meant the rest of sleep.
14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died.
15 And for your sake, so that you may believe, I’m glad I wasn’t there. But let’s go to him.”
16 So Thomas, who was called Didymus, said to the other disciples, “Let’s go too, so we can die with him.”
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away.
19 Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.
20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him; but Mary stayed seated in the house.
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22 And even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha said to him, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies.
26 And everyone 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 is coming into the world.”
28 After saying this, she went and called her sister Mary privately, saying, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”
29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.
30 Jesus had not yet entered the village; he was still at the place where Martha had met him.
31 So the Jews who were in the house with her, comforting her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her, thinking she was going to the tomb to weep there.
32 When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her weeping too, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
34 And he asked, “Where have you put him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Jesus wept.
36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Couldn’t the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying too?”
38 Jesus, deeply moved again within himself, went to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone had been laid over it.
39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, it already smells, because it’s the fourth day.”
40 Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this because of the crowd standing around, so that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 After saying this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him and let him go.”
45 Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he did believed in him.
46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a council and said, “What are we doing? This man is performing many signs.
48 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.”
49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing.
50 You don’t consider that it is better for you for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to perish.”
51 He did not say this on his own; but, being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation.
52 And not for the nation alone, but also to gather into one the children of God who were scattered.
53 So from that day on, they decided to kill him.
54 Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews. Instead, he left that place for the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and stayed there with the disciples.
55 The Jewish Passover was near, and many people from the region went up to Jerusalem before Passover to purify themselves.
56 They were looking for Jesus and, as they stood in the temple, they said to one another, “What do you think? Surely he won’t come to the festival?”
57 The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where Jesus was, they should report it so they could arrest him.
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