CHAPTER 11
At this time
a man
named Lazarus
was
sick.
He lived in
Bethany,
the
village
of Mary
and
her
sister
Martha.
(
Mary,
whose
brother
Lazarus
was sick,
would later
anoint
the
Lord
with perfume
and
wipe
His
feet
with
her
hair.)
When
Jesus
heard this,
He said,
“This
sickness
will
not
end in
death.
No,
it is for
the
glory
of God,
so that
the
Son
of God
may be glorified
through
it."
Jesus
answered,
“Are there
not
twelve
hours
of
daylight?
If
anyone
walks
in
the
daytime,
he will not stumble,
because
he sees
by the
light
of this
world.
After
He had said
this,
He told
them,
“Our
friend
Lazarus
has fallen asleep,
but
I am going there
to
wake him up.”
They
thought
that
Jesus was talking
about
actual sleep,
but
He
was speaking
about
the
death
of Lazarus.
Then
Thomas
called
Didymus
said
to his
fellow disciples,
“Let us
also
go,
so that
we may die
with
Him.”
Jesus
said
to her,
“I
am
the
resurrection
and
the
life.
He who
believes
in
Me
will live,
even though
he dies.
“Yes,
Lord,”
she answered,
“I
believe
that
You
are
the
Christ,
the
Son
of God,
who
was to come
into
the
world.”
After
Martha had said
this,
she went back
and
called
her
sister
Mary
aside
to tell her,
“The
Teacher
is here
and
is asking for
you.”
When
the
Jews
who
were
in
the
house
consoling
Mary
saw
how quickly
she
got up
and
went out,
they followed
her,
supposing
she was going
to
the
tomb
to
mourn
there.
When
Mary
came to
Jesus
and saw
Him,
she fell
at
His
feet
and said,
“Lord,
if
You had been
here,
my
brother
would
not
have died.”
When
Jesus
saw
her
weeping,
and
the
Jews
who had come with
her
also weeping,
He was deeply moved
in spirit
and
troubled.
But
some
of
them
asked,
“Could
not
this man
who
opened
the
eyes
of the
blind
also
have kept
Lazarus
from dying?”
Jesus,
once again
deeply moved,
came
to
the
tomb.
It was
a cave
with
a stone
laid
across
the entrance.
“Take away
the
stone,”
Jesus
said.
“Lord,
by now
he stinks,”
said
Martha,
the
sister
of the
dead man.
“It has already been
four days.”
So
they took away
the
stone.
Then
Jesus
lifted
His
eyes
upward
and
said,
“Father,
I thank
You
that
You have heard
Me.
I
knew
that
You always hear
Me,
but
I say this
for the benefit of
the
people
standing here,
so
they may believe
that
You
sent
Me.”
The man who
had been dead
came out
with his
hands
and
feet
bound
in strips of linen,
and
his
face
wrapped
in a headcloth.
“Unwrap
him
and
let
him
go,”
Jesus
told
them.
Then
the
chief priests
and
Pharisees
convened
the Sanhedrin
and
said,
“What
are we to do?
This
man
is performing
many
signs.
If
we let
Him
go on like this,
everyone
will believe
in
Him,
and then
the
Romans
will come
and
take away
both
our
place
and
our
nation.”
But
one
of
them,
named Caiaphas,
who was
high priest
that
year,
said
to them,
“You
know
nothing at all!
You do not realize
that
it is better
for you
that
one
man
die
for
the
people
than that
the
whole
nation
perish.”
Caiaphas did not say
this
on
his own.
Instead,
as
high priest
that
year,
he was prophesying
that
Jesus
would
die
for
the
nation,
and
not
only
for
the
nation,
but
also
for
the
scattered
children
of God,
to gather them together
into
one.
As a result,
Jesus
no longer
went about
publicly
among
the
Jews,
but
He withdrew
to
a town
called
Ephraim
in
an area
near
the
wilderness.
And He stayed
there
with
the
disciples.
Now
the
Jewish
Passover
was
near,
and
many people
went up
from
the
country
to
Jerusalem
to
purify
themselves
before
the
Passover.
They kept looking for
Jesus
and
asking
one another
as they stood
in
the
temple courts,
“What
do you think?
Will He come
to
the
feast
at all?”
But
the
chief priests
and
Pharisees
had given
orders
that
anyone who
knew
where
He was
must report it,
so that
they could arrest
Him.