John 11-12 (Contemporary English Version)

John 11

The Death of Lazarus

 ^1-2A man by the name of Lazarus was sick in the village of Bethany. He had two sisters, Mary and Martha. This was the same Mary who later poured perfume on the Lord's head and wiped his feet with her hair. ³The sisters sent a message to the Lord and told him that his good friend Lazarus was sick.

    ⁴When Jesus heard this, he said, "His sickness won't end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son."

    ⁵Jesus loved Martha and her sister and brother. ⁶But he stayed where he was for two more days. ⁷Then he said to his disciples, "Now we will go back to Judea."

    ⁸"Teacher," they said, "the people there want to stone you to death! Why do you want to go back?"

    ⁹Jesus answered, "Aren't there twelve hours in each day? If you walk during the day, you will have light from the sun, and you won't stumble. ¹⁰But if you walk during the night, you will stumble, because you don't have any light." ¹¹Then he told them, "Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I am going there to wake him up."

    ¹²They replied, "Lord, if he is asleep, he will get better." ¹³Jesus really meant that Lazarus was dead, but they thought he was talking only about sleep.

    ¹⁴Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead! ¹⁵I am glad that I wasn't there, because now you will have a chance to put your faith in me. Let's go to him."

    ¹⁶Thomas, whose nickname was "Twin," said to the other disciples, "Come on. Let's go, so we can die with him."

   

Jesus Brings Lazarus to Life

 ¹⁷When Jesus got to Bethany, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸Bethany was only about two miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁹and many people had come from the city to comfort Martha and Mary because their brother had died.

    ²⁰When Martha heard that Jesus had arrived, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house. ²¹Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²Yet even now I know that God will do anything you ask."

    ²³Jesus told her, "Your brother will live again!"

    ²⁴Martha answered, "I know that he will be raised to life on the last day, ^[a] when all the dead are raised." ²⁵Jesus then said, "I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. ²⁶And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die. Do you believe this?"

    ²⁷"Yes, Lord!" she replied. "I believe that you are Christ, the Son of God. You are the one we hoped would come into the world."

    ²⁸After Martha said this, she went and privately said to her sister Mary, "The Teacher is here, and he wants to see you." ²⁹As soon as Mary heard this, she got up and went out to Jesus. ³⁰He was still outside the village where Martha had gone to meet him. ³¹Many people had come to comfort Mary, and when they saw her quickly leave the house, they thought she was going out to the tomb to cry. So they followed her.

    ³²Mary went to where Jesus was. Then as soon as she saw him, she knelt at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

    ³³When Jesus saw that Mary and the people with her were crying, he was terribly upset ³⁴and asked, "Where have you put his body?"

   They replied, "Lord, come and you will see."

    ³⁵Jesus started crying, ³⁶and the people said, "See how much he loved Lazarus."

    ³⁷Some of them said, "He gives sight to the blind. Why couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying?"

    ³⁸Jesus was still terribly upset. So he went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone rolled against the entrance. ³⁹Then he told the people to roll the stone away. But Martha said, "Lord, you know that Lazarus has been dead four days, and there will be a bad smell."

    ⁴⁰Jesus replied, "Didn't I tell you that if you had faith, you would see the glory of God?"

    ⁴¹After the stone had been rolled aside, Jesus looked up toward heaven and prayed, "Father, I thank you for answering my prayer. ⁴²I know that you always answer my prayers. But I said this, so that the people here would believe that you sent me."

    ⁴³When Jesus had finished praying, he shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" ⁴⁴The man who had been dead came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with strips of burial cloth, and a cloth covered his face.

   Jesus then told the people, "Untie him and let him go."

   

The Plot To Kill Jesus

(Matthew 26.1-5; Mark 14.1,2; Luke 22.1,2)

 ⁴⁵Many of the people who had come to visit Mary saw the things that Jesus did, and they put their faith in him. ⁴⁶Others went to the Pharisees and told what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called the council together and said, "What should we do? This man is working a lot of miracles. ^{[b] 48}If we don't stop him now, everyone will put their faith in him. Then the Romans will come and destroy our temple and our nation." ^{[c] 49}One of the council members was Caiaphas, who was also high priest that year. He spoke up and said, "You people don't have any sense at all! ⁵⁰Don't you know it is better for one person to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed?" ⁵¹Caiaphas did not say this on his own. As high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation. ⁵²Yet Jesus would not die just for the Jewish nation. He would die to bring together all of God's scattered people. ⁵³From that day on, the council started making plans to put Jesus to death.

    ⁵⁴Because of this plot against him, Jesus stopped going around in public. He went to the town of Ephraim, which was near the desert, and he stayed there with his disciples.

    ⁵⁵It was almost time for Passover. Many of the Jewish people who lived out in the country had come to Jerusalem to get themselves ready ^[d] for the festival. ⁵⁶They looked around for Jesus. Then when they were in the temple, they asked each other, "You don't think he will come here for Passover, do you?" ⁵⁷The chief priests and the Pharisees told the people to let them know if any of them saw Jesus. That is how they hoped to arrest him.

   

John 12

At Bethany

(Matthew 26.6-13; Mark 14.3-9)

 ¹Six days before Passover Jesus went back to Bethany, where he had raised Lazarus from death. ²A meal had been prepared for Jesus. Martha was doing the serving, and Lazarus himself was there.

    ³Mary took a very expensive bottle of perfume ^[e] and poured it on Jesus' feet. She wiped them with her hair, and the sweet smell of the perfume filled the house. ⁴A disciple named Judas Iscariot ^[f] was there. He was the one who was going to betray Jesus, and he asked, ⁵"Why wasn't this perfume sold for three hundred silver coins and the money given to the poor?" ⁶Judas did not really care about the poor. He asked this because he carried the moneybag and sometimes would steal from it. ⁷Jesus replied, "Leave her alone! She has kept this perfume for the day of my burial. ⁸You will always have the poor with you, but you won't always have me."

   

A Plot To Kill Lazarus

 ⁹A lot of people came when they heard that Jesus was there. They also wanted to see Lazarus, because Jesus had raised him from death. ¹⁰So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus. ¹¹He was the reason that many of the Jewish leaders were turning from them and putting their faith in Jesus.

   

Jesus Enters Jerusalem

(Matthew 21.1-11; Mark 11.1-11; Luke 19.28-40)

 ¹²The next day a large crowd was in Jerusalem for Passover. When they heard that Jesus was coming for the festival, ¹³they took palm branches and went out to greet him. ^[g] They shouted, "Hooray! ^[h] God bless the one who comes

   in the name of the Lord!

   God bless the King

   of Israel!"

    ¹⁴Jesus found a donkey and rode on it, just as the Scriptures say,

    ¹⁵"People of Jerusalem,

   don't be afraid!

   Your King is now coming,

   and he is riding

   on a donkey."

    ¹⁶At first, Jesus' disciples did not understand. But after he had been given his glory, ^[i] they remembered all this. Everything had happened exactly as the Scriptures said it would. ^17-18A crowd had come to meet Jesus because they had seen him call Lazarus out of the tomb. They kept talking about him and this miracle. ^{[j] 19}But the Pharisees said to each other, "There is nothing that can be done! Everyone in the world is following Jesus."

Some Greeks Want To Meet Jesus

 ²⁰Some Greeks ^[k] had gone to Jerusalem to worship during Passover. ²¹Philip from Bethsaida in Galilee was there too. So they went to him and said, "Sir, we would like to meet Jesus." ²²Philip told Andrew. Then the two of them went to Jesus and told him.

The Son of Man Must Be Lifted Up

 ²³Jesus said:

   The time has come for the Son of Man to be given his glory. ^{[l] 24}I tell you for certain that a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies. But if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat. ²⁵If you love your life, you will lose it. If you give it up in this world, you will be given eternal life. ²⁶If you serve me, you must go with me. My servants will be with me wherever I am. If you serve me, my Father will honor you. ²⁷Now I am deeply troubled, and I don't know what to say. But I must not ask my Father to keep me from this time of suffering. In fact, I came into the world to suffer. ²⁸So Father, bring glory to yourself.

   A voice from heaven then said, "I have already brought glory to myself, and I will do it again!" ²⁹When the crowd heard the voice, some of them thought it was thunder. Others thought an angel had spoken to Jesus.

    ³⁰Then Jesus told the crowd, "That voice spoke to help you, not me. ³¹This world's people are now being judged, and the ruler of this world ^[m] is already being thrown out! ³²If I am lifted up above the earth, I will make everyone want to come to me." ³³Jesus was talking about the way he would be put to death. ³⁴The crowd said to Jesus, "The Scriptures teach that the Messiah will live forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?"

    ³⁵Jesus answered, "The light will be with you for only a little longer. Walk in the light while you can. Then you won't be caught walking blindly in the dark. ³⁶Have faith in the light while it is with you, and you will be children of the light."

   After Jesus had said these things, he left and went into hiding.

The People Refuse To Have Faith in Jesus

 ³⁷He had worked a lot of miracles ^[n] among the people, but they were still not willing to have faith in him. ³⁸This happened so that what the prophet Isaiah had said would come true, "Lord, who has believed

   our message?

   And who has seen

   your mighty strength?"

    ³⁹The people could not have faith in Jesus, because Isaiah had also said,

    ⁴⁰"The Lord has blinded

   the eyes of the people,

   and he has made

   the people stubborn.

   He did this so that they

   could not see

   or understand,

   and so that they

   would not turn to the Lord

   and be healed."

    ⁴¹Isaiah said this, because he saw the glory of Jesus and spoke about him. ^{[o] 42}Even then, many of the leaders put their faith in Jesus, but they did not tell anyone about it. The Pharisees had already given orders for the people not to have anything to do with anyone who had faith in Jesus. ⁴³And besides, the leaders liked praise from others more than they liked praise from God.

Jesus Came To Save the World

 ⁴⁴In a loud voice Jesus said:

   Everyone who has faith in me also has faith in the one who sent me. ⁴⁵And everyone who has seen me has seen the one who sent me. ⁴⁶I am the light that has come into the world. No one who has faith in me will stay in the dark.

    ⁴⁷I am not the one who will judge those who refuse to obey my teachings. I came to save the people of this world, not to be their judge. ⁴⁸But everyone who rejects me and my teachings will be judged on the last day ^[p] by what I have said. ⁴⁹I don't speak on my own. I say only what the Father who sent me has told me to say. ⁵⁰I know that his commands will bring eternal life. That is why I tell you exactly what the Father has told me.