Lazarus dies

11 There was a certain man, who was called Lazarus. He lived at Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived too. He became ill. ² It was this Mary who had poured oil with a nice smell over the feet of the Lord Jesus. Then she had cleaned his feet with her hair. It was her brother Lazarus who was ill. ³ So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus to say, ‘Lord, the friend that you love is ill.’

⁴ Jesus heard the message. Then he said, ‘This illness will not finish with Lazarus's death. No, its purpose is to show how great God is. Because of this, people will see how great God's Son is.’ ⁵ Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and their brother Lazarus, too. ⁶ He heard the news that Lazarus was ill. But then he stayed in the place where he was for two more days.

⁷ After that, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘We should return to Judea.’ ⁸ The disciples said, ‘Teacher, only a short time ago, the Jews there tried to kill you with stones. You should not return there!’ ⁹ Jesus answered, ‘You know that there are 12 hours in the day. Anyone who walks during the day will not fall down. He will not fall down because he sees this world's light. ¹⁰ But anyone who walks during the night will fall down. He will fall down because he has no light.’

¹¹ After Jesus said that, he said to them, ‘Our friend Lazarus is sleeping. But I will go there to wake him up.’ ¹² So the disciples said to him, ‘If he is sleeping, Lord, he will get well again.’ ¹³ The disciples thought that Jesus was talking about sleep as rest. But Jesus meant that Lazarus had died. ¹⁴ So then, Jesus told them clearly, ‘Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ But I am happy that I was not there with him. I am happy about that because it will help you. Now you will believe in me. We must go to him now.’ ¹⁶ Thomas, who was called Didymus, said to the other disciples, ‘We should go with our Teacher, so that we can die with him!’^[a]

Jesus is able to give life to dead people

¹⁷ Jesus arrived at Bethany. He discovered that Lazarus had already been in the grave for four days. ¹⁸ Bethany was about 3 kilometres from Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Many Jews had come there to visit Martha and Mary. They wanted to help Martha and Mary because their brother had died.

²⁰ Martha heard the news that Jesus was coming. So she went out to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house with the visitors. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now, I know that God will answer you. He will do whatever you ask him.’ ²³ Jesus told her, ‘Your brother will rise and become alive again.’ ²⁴ Martha replied, ‘I know that he will rise on the last day, to become alive again.’ ²⁵ Jesus said to her, ‘I have authority over death. I raise dead people, and I give people true life. Anyone who believes in me will live. Even if that person dies, he will continue to live. ²⁶ People who believe in me while they are alive will never die. Do you believe that?’ ²⁷ Martha answered, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah. You are God's Son, the one that God promised to send into the world.’

²⁸ After this, Martha went back to the house. She took Mary to speak to her on her own. Martha said to her, ‘The Teacher is here, and he is asking to meet you.’ ²⁹ When Mary heard this, she got up immediately. She went out to meet Jesus. ³⁰ Jesus had not arrived in the village yet. He was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ There were still Jews in the house who were with Mary to help her. They saw her get up quickly and go out. So they followed her. They thought that she was going to the place where they had put Lazarus's dead body. They thought that she wanted to go there to weep.

³² Mary arrived at the place where Jesus was. When she saw Jesus, she bent down low at his feet. She said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ ³³ Jesus saw that Mary was weeping. He saw that the Jews who had come with her were weeping too. When Jesus saw them, he felt very sad in his spirit. He was upset about Lazarus's death. ³⁴ He asked them, ‘Where have you put his dead body?’ They answered, ‘Come and see, Lord.’ ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ Then the Jews said to each other, ‘See how much he loved Lazarus!’ ³⁷ But some of them said, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man. So surely he would have been able to stop the death of Lazarus.’

Jesus makes Lazarus alive again

³⁸ Jesus arrived at the grave where they had put Lazarus's dead body. It was a cave. A large stone covered the front of the hole. Again, Jesus felt very upset. ³⁹ He said, ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha, the dead man's sister, said to Jesus, ‘But Lord, by now his dead body will have a bad smell. He has been dead for four days!’ ⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, ‘I told you already that you must believe in me. Then you will see how great and how powerful God is.’ ⁴¹ So they moved the stone away. Jesus looked up towards the sky. He said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have listened to me. ⁴² I know that you listen to me always. But I said this to help all the people who are standing here. I want them to believe that you sent me.’ ⁴³ When Jesus had said this, he shouted with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ ⁴⁴ The dead man came out. There were pieces of cloth round his hands and round his feet. Another piece of cloth was round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Undo the cloths and let him go.’

The Pharisees decide how to kill Jesus

⁴⁵ The Jews who had come to visit Mary saw this. They saw what Jesus did. So many of them believed in him. ⁴⁶ But some of them went to the Pharisees. They told the Pharisees what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷ Then the Pharisees and the leaders of the priests had a meeting with the group of Jewish leaders. They asked each other, ‘What will we do? This man is doing so many miracles. ⁴⁸ If we let him do more things like this, everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman rulers will come and punish us.^[b] Their soldiers will destroy our temple and even destroy our whole country of Israel.’

⁴⁹ One of the group was the leader of the priests that year. He was called Caiaphas. He said, ‘You do not understand the problem. ⁵⁰ It is better that one man should die on behalf of our people. That is better than if all Israel's people should die.’ ⁵¹ Caiaphas did not say this because he had thought it by himself. No, he was speaking as a prophet, because he was the leader of the priests that year. That is why he said that Jesus would die on behalf of Israel's people. ⁵² And Jesus would die not only for Israel's people. He would also die for all God's people who lived in many different places. He would bring them all together. They would become like one big family.

⁵³ From that day, the Jewish leaders decided together how they could kill Jesus. ⁵⁴ So Jesus stopped travelling about in Judea where everyone could see him. Instead, he went away from there to a town called Ephraim that was near to the wilderness. He stayed there with his disciples.

⁵⁵ It was almost time for the Jewish Passover Festival to begin. Many people were going from their country places to Jerusalem. They were going there to make themselves clean in front of God before they went to the festival. ⁵⁶ They were continuing to look for Jesus. While they stood in the yard of the temple, they spoke to each other about him. They asked each other, ‘Do you think that he will come to the festival or not?’ ⁵⁷ The leaders of the priests and the Pharisees had spoken to the people about Jesus. They had told them, ‘If anyone knows where Jesus is, you must tell us.’ So then they could take hold of him to put him in a prison.