Bible Time

¹NOW there was a man who was sick, Lazar of the town of Bethany, the brother of Mary and Martha. ²This is the Mary who anointed the feet of Jesus with perfume and wiped them with her hair. The Lazar who was sick was her brother. ³His 2 sisters therefore sent to Jesus, saying, Our Lord, look, the one whom you love is sick. ⁴Jesus said, This is not a sickness of death, but for the sake of the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified on his account. ⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazar. ⁶When he heard he was sick, he remained 2 days in the place where he was.

⁷After that he said to his disciples, Come, let us go again to Judea. ⁸His disciples said to him, Teacher, not long ago the Jews wanted to stone you, yet you are going there again? ⁹Jesus said to them, Are there not 12 hours in the day? If a man walks by daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰But if a man travels at nighttime, he will stumble, because there is no light in it. ¹¹Jesus said these things; and after that he said to them, Our friend Lazar is asleep; but I am going to wake him. ¹²His disciples said to him, Our Lord, if he is sleeping, he will get well. ¹³But Jesus spoke of his death; and they thought that what he said was sleeping in bed. ¹⁴Then Jesus said to them plainly, Lazar is dead; ¹⁵And I am glad I was not there, for your sakes, so that you may believe; but let us walk there. ¹⁶Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go and die with him.

¹⁷So Jesus came to Bethany, and he found that Lazar had been 4 days in the tomb. ¹⁸Now Bethany was towards Jerusalem, a distance of about 15 furlongs. ¹⁹And many Jews kept coming to Martha and Mary to comfort their hearts concerning their brother. ²⁰When Martha heard that Jesus had come, she went out to meet him; but Mary sat in the house. ²¹Then Martha said to Jesus, My Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, he will give you. ²³Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise up. ²⁴Martha said to him, I know he will rise up in the resurrection at the last day. ²⁵Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, even though he die, he will live. ²⁶And whoever is alive and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? ²⁷She said to him, Yes, my Lord; I do believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come to the world. ²⁸And when she had said these things, she went away and called her sister Mary secretly and said to her, Our teacher has come, and he is calling for you.

²⁹When Mary heard it, she rose up quickly and came to him. ³⁰Jesus had not yet come into the town, but he was still at the same place where Martha met him. ³¹The Jews who were with her in the house, comforting her, when they saw Mary rise up quickly and go out, also followed her, for they thought she was going to the tomb to weep. ³²When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she threw herself at his feet and said to him, My Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ³³When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews weeping, who had come with her, he was moved in his spirit and was greatly disturbed. ³⁴And he said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Our Lord, come and see. ³⁵And Jesus was in tears. ³⁶Then the Jews said, See how much he loved him.

³⁷Some of them said, Could this man, who opened the eyes of that blind man, have not also kept this man from dying? ³⁸As Jesus was disturbed in himself because of them, he came to the tomb. That tomb was a cave, and a stone was placed at the entrance. ³⁹Jesus said, Take away this stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, My Lord, his body already stinks, for he has been dead 4 days. ⁴⁰Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? ⁴¹So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted his eyes upwards and said, Oh Father, I thank you for you have heard me, ⁴²And I know that you always hear me; but I say these things just because of this people who stand around, so that they may believe that you have sent me. ⁴³And when he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, Lazar, come out. ⁴⁴And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with burial clothes, and his face bound with a burial napkin. Jesus said to them, Loose him and let him go. ⁴⁵Many of the Jews who had come to Mary, when they saw what Jesus had done, believed in him. ⁴⁶And some of them went to the Pharisees and told them everything Jesus had done.

⁴⁷So the high priests and the Pharisees gathered together and said, What will we do? For this man does many miracles. ⁴⁸If we allow him to continue like this, all men will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take over both our country and our people. ⁴⁹But one of them, called Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, said to them, You know nothing; ⁵⁰Nor do you understand that it is much better for us that one man should die instead of the people, and not all the people perish. ⁵¹He did not say this of himself; but because he was the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus had to die for the sake of the people; ⁵²And not only for the sake of the people, but also to gather together the children of God who are scattered abroad. ⁵³And from that very day, they decided to kill him. ⁵⁴Jesus therefore did not walk openly among the Jews, but went away from there to a place which is close to the wilderness, in the province of Ephraim; and he remained there with his disciples. ⁵⁵Now the Jewish passover was at hand; and many went up from the towns to Jerusalem, before the feast, to purify themselves. ⁵⁶And they were looking for Jesus, and at the temple they kept saying to one another, What do you think, will he not come to the feast? ⁵⁷But the high priests and the Pharisees had already commanded that if any man knows where he is, he should let them know, so that they might seize him.