John 11–12

Lazarus Dies

11A man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. ²Mary would later pour perfume on the Lord. She would also wipe his feet with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was sick in bed. ³So the sisters sent a message to Jesus. “Lord,” they told him, “the one you love is sick.”

⁴When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory. God’s Son will receive glory because of it.”

⁵Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶But after he heard Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days.

⁷Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

⁸“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short time ago the Jews tried to kill you with stones. Are you still going back there?”

⁹Jesus answered, “Aren’t there 12 hours of daylight? A person who walks during the day won’t trip and fall. He can see because of this world’s light. ¹⁰But when he walks at night, he’ll trip and fall. He has no light.”

¹¹After he said this, Jesus went on speaking to them. “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,” he said. “But I am going there to wake him up.”

¹²His disciples replied, “Lord, if he’s sleeping, he will get better.”

¹³Jesus had been speaking about the death of Lazarus. But his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

¹⁴So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵For your benefit, I am glad I was not there. Now you will believe. But let us go to him.”

¹⁶Then Thomas, who was called Didymus, spoke to the rest of the disciples. “Let us go also,” he said. “Then we can die with Jesus.”

Jesus Comforts the Sisters

¹⁷When Jesus arrived, he found out that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁹Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary. They had come to comfort them because their brother was dead.

²⁰When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him. But Mary stayed at home.

²¹“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “I wish you had been here! Then my brother would not have died. ²²But I know that even now God will give you anything you ask for.”

²³Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴Martha answered, “I know he will rise again. This will happen when people are raised from the dead on the last day.”

²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even if he dies. ²⁶And those who live and believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God. I believe that you are the One who was supposed to come into the world.”

²⁸After she said this, she went back home. She called her sister Mary to one side to talk to her. “The Teacher is here,” Martha said. “He is asking for you.”

²⁹When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰Jesus had not yet entered the village. He was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹Some Jews had been comforting Mary in the house. They noticed how quickly she got up and went out. So they followed her. They thought she was going to the tomb to cry there.

³²Mary reached the place where Jesus was. When she saw him, she fell at his feet. She said, “Lord, I wish you had been here! Then my brother would not have died.”

³³Jesus saw her crying. He saw that the Jews who had come along with her were crying also. His spirit became very sad, and he was troubled.

³⁴“Where have you put him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

³⁵Jesus sobbed.

³⁶Then the Jews said, “See how much he loved him!”

³⁷But some of them said, “He opened the eyes of the blind man. Couldn’t he have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead

³⁸Once more Jesus felt very sad. He came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone in front of the entrance.

³⁹“Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad smell. Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.”

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

⁴¹So they took away the stone.

Then Jesus looked up. He said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. ⁴²I know that you always hear me. But I said this for the benefit of the people standing here. I said it so they will believe that you sent me.”

⁴³Then Jesus called in a loud voice. He said, “Lazarus, come out!”

⁴⁴The dead man came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with strips of linen. A cloth was around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the clothes he was buried in and let him go.”

The Plan to Kill Jesus

⁴⁵Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary saw what Jesus did. So they put their faith in him.

⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees. They told the Pharisees what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

“What can we do?” they asked. “This man is doing many miraculous signs. ⁴⁸If we let him keep on doing this, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come. They will take away our temple and our nation.”

⁴⁹One of them spoke up. His name was Caiaphas. He was high priest at that time. He said, “You don’t know anything at all! ⁵⁰You don’t realize what is good for you. It is better if one man dies for the people than if the whole nation is destroyed.”

⁵¹He did not say this on his own. But he was high priest at that time. So he told ahead of time that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation. ⁵²He also prophesied that Jesus would die for God’s children scattered everywhere. He would die to bring them together and make them one.

⁵³So from that day on, the Jewish rulers planned to kill Jesus.

⁵⁴Jesus no longer moved around openly among the Jews. Instead, he went away to an area near the desert. He went to a village called Ephraim. There he stayed with his disciples.

⁵⁵It was almost time for the Jewish Passover Feast. Many people went up from the country to Jerusalem. They went there for the special washing that would make them pure before the Passover Feast. ⁵⁶They kept looking for Jesus as they stood in the temple area. They asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the Feast at all?”

⁵⁷But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders. They had commanded anyone who found out where Jesus was staying to report it. Then they could arrest him.

Mary Pours Perfume on Jesus

12It was six days before the Passover Feast. Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived. Lazarus was the one Jesus had raised from the dead. ²A dinner was given at Bethany to honor Jesus. Martha served the food. Lazarus was among those at the table with Jesus.

³Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard. It was an expensive perfume. She poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the sweet smell of the perfume.

⁴But Judas Iscariot didn’t like what Mary did. He was one of Jesus’ disciples. Later he was going to hand Jesus over to his enemies. Judas said, ⁵“Why wasn’t this perfume sold? Why wasn’t the money given to poor people? It was worth a year’s pay.”

⁶He didn’t say this because he cared about the poor. He said it because he was a thief. Judas was in charge of the money bag. He used to help himself to what was in it.

⁷“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “The perfume was meant for the day I am buried. ⁸You will always have the poor among you. But you won’t always have me.”

⁹Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there, so they came. But they did not come only because of Jesus. They also came to see Lazarus. After all, Jesus had raised him from the dead.

¹⁰So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus too. ¹¹Because of Lazarus, many of the Jews were starting to follow Jesus. They were putting their faith in him.

Jesus Enters Jerusalem

¹²The next day the large crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. ¹³So they took branches from palm trees and went out to meet him. They shouted,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the King of Israel!”

¹⁴Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it. This is just as it is written in Scripture. It says,

¹⁵“City of Zion, do not be afraid.

See, your king is coming.

He is sitting on a donkey’s colt.”

¹⁶At first, Jesus’ disciples did not understand all this. They realized it only after he had received glory. Then they realized that these things had been written about him. They realized that the people had done these things to him.

¹⁷A crowd had been with Jesus when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead. So they continued to tell everyone about what had happened. ¹⁸Many people went out to meet him. They had heard that he had done this miraculous sign.

¹⁹So the Pharisees said to one another, “This isn’t getting us anywhere. Look how the whole world is following him!”

Jesus Tells About His Coming Death

²⁰There were some Greeks among the people who went up to worship during the Feast. ²¹They came to ask Philip for a favor. Philip was from Bethsaida in Galilee.

“Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”

²²Philip went to tell Andrew. Then Andrew and Philip told Jesus.

²³Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to receive glory. ²⁴What I’m about to tell you is true. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only one seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

²⁵“Anyone who loves his life will lose it. But anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it and have eternal life. ²⁶Anyone who serves me must follow me. And where I am, my servant will also be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

²⁷“My heart is troubled. What should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No. This is the very reason I came to this hour. ²⁸Father, bring glory to your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven. It said, “I have brought glory to my name. I will bring glory to it again.”

²⁹The crowd there heard the voice. Some said it was thunder. Others said an angel had…