John 11:19–57

¹⁹Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. ²⁰As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained seated in the house.

²¹Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. ²²Yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

²³“Your brother will riseⁱ again,” Jesus told her.

²⁴Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”^j

²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am^k the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me,^l even if he dies, will live.^{m 26}Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.ⁿ Do you believe this?”

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe you are the Messiah,^o the Son^p of God, who comes into the world.”^q

JESUS SHARES THE SORROW OF DEATH

²⁸Having said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

²⁹As soon as Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.^{r 30}Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw that Mary got up quickly and went out. They followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb^s to cry there.

³²As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet^t and told him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died!”

³³When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved in his spirit^u and troubled. ³⁴“Where have you put him?” he asked.

“Lord,” they told him, “come and see.”

³⁵Jesus wept.^v

³⁶So the Jews said, “See how he loved^w him!” ³⁷But some of them said, “Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes^x also have kept this man from dying?”

THE SEVENTH SIGN: RAISING LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD

³⁸Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.^{y 39}“Remove the stone,” Jesus said.

Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days.”

⁴⁰Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory^z of God?”^aa

⁴¹So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank^ab you that you heard me.^{ac 42}I know that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so that they may believe you sent^ad me.” ⁴³After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”

THE PLOT TO KILL JESUS

⁴⁵Therefore, many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he did believed in him.^{ae 46}But some of them went to the Pharisees^af and told them what Jesus had done.

⁴⁷So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin^ag and were saying, “What are we going to do since this man is doing many signs? ⁴⁸If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans^a will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

⁴⁹One of them, Caiaphas,^b who was high priest^c that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰You’re not considering that it is to your^B advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.”^{d 51}He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die^e for the nation, ⁵²and not for the nation only, but also to unite the scattered children^f of God. ⁵³So from that day on they plotted to kill him.^{g 54}Jesus therefore no longer walked openly^h among the Jews but departed from there to the countryside near the wilderness,ⁱ to a town called Ephraim, and he stayed there with the disciples.

⁵⁵Now the Jewish Passover^j was near, and many went up to Jerusalem^k from the country to purify themselves before the Passover. ⁵⁶They were looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple,^l “What do you think? He won’t come to the festival,^m will he?” ⁵⁷The chief priestsⁿ and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it so that they could arrest him.