John 11:38–53

Jesus Raises Lazarus

³⁸Again feeling very upset, Jesus came to the tomb. It was a cave with a large stone covering the entrance. ³⁹Jesus said, “Move the stone away.”

Martha, the sister of the dead man, said, “But, Lord, it has been four days since he died. There will be a bad smell.”

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

⁴¹So they moved the stone away from the entrance. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. ⁴²I know that you always hear me, but I said these things because of the people here around me. I want them to believe that you sent me.” ⁴³After Jesus said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with pieces of cloth, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take the cloth off of him and let him go.”

The Plan to Kill Jesus

⁴⁵Many of the people, who had come to visit Mary and saw what Jesus did, believed in him. ⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷Then the leading priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the council. They asked, “What should we do? This man is doing many miracles. ⁴⁸If we let him continue doing these things, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away our Temple and our nation.”

⁴⁹One of the men there was Caiaphas, the high priest that year. He said, “You people know nothing! ⁵⁰You don’t realize that it is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed.”

⁵¹Caiaphas did not think of this himself. As high priest that year, he was really prophesying that Jesus would die for their nation ⁵²and for God’s scattered children to bring them all together and make them one.

⁵³That day they started planning to kill Jesus.