John 11:23–57

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.