Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of
Mary and her sister Martha. 2Mary was the one who anointed the
Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother
Lazarus was ill. 3So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom
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you love is ill.” 4But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not
lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be
glorified through it.” 5Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus, 6
after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two
days longer in the place where he was. 7Then after this he said to the
disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8The disciples said to him, “Rabbi,
the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there
again?” 9
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those
who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of
this world. 10But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is
not in them.” 11After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has
fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12The disciples said
to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13Jesus,
however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he
was referring merely to sleep. 14Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is
dead. 15For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.
But let us go to him.” 16Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his
fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the
tomb four days. 18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles
away, 19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console
them about their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21Martha said to
Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”
23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24Martha said to him,
“I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe
in me, even though they die, will live, 26and everyone who lives and
believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27She said to him,
“Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one
coming into the world.” 28When she had said this, she went back and
called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is
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calling for you.” 29And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to
him. 30Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the
place where Martha had met him. 31The Jews who were with her in the
house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They
followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to
weep there. 32When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt
at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother
would not have died.”
33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also
weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34He said,
“Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”
35Jesus began to weep. 36So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind
man have kept this man from dying?” 38Then Jesus, again greatly
disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against
it. 39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead
man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been
dead four days.” 40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you
believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the
stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for
having heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this
for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you
sent me.” 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus,
come out!” 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with
strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them,
“Unbind him, and let him go.”
Reader: These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is
the Messiah, the Son of God,
All: and that through believing, we may have life in his name.
(John 20:31)