Book of Common Prayer
Mercy upon all
25 My dear brothers and sisters, you mustn’t get the wrong idea and think too much of yourselves. That is why I don’t want you to remain in ignorance of this mystery: a hardening has come for a time upon Israel, until the fullness of the nations comes in. 26 That is how “all Israel shall be saved,” as the Bible says:
The Deliverer will come from Zion,
and will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
27 And this will be my covenant with them,
whenever I take away their sins.
28 As regards the good news, they are enemies—for your sake! But as regards God’s choice they are beloved because of the patriarchs. 29 God’s gifts and God’s call, you see, cannot be undone. 30 For just as you were once disobedient to God, but now have received mercy through their disobedience, 31 so they have now disbelieved as well, in order that, through the mercy which has come your way, they too may now receive mercy. 32 For God has shut up all people in disobedience, so that he may have mercy upon all.
To God be the glory
33 O, the depth of the riches
and the wisdom and knowledge of God!
We cannot search his judgments,
we cannot fathom his ways.
34 For “who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has given him counsel?
35 Who has given a gift to him
which needs to be repaid?”
36 For from him, through him and to him are all things.
Glory to him forever! Amen.
Jesus goes to the tomb
28 With these words, Martha went back and called her sister Mary.
“The teacher has come,” she said to her privately, “and he’s asking for you.”
29 When she heard that, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Jesus hadn’t yet arrived in the village. He was still in the place where Martha had met him.
31 The Judaeans who were in the house with Mary, consoling her, saw her get up quickly and go out. They guessed that she was going to the tomb to weep there, and they followed her.
32 When Mary came to where Jesus was, she saw him and fell down at his feet.
“Master!” she said. “If only you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died!”
33 When Jesus saw her crying, and the Judaeans who had come with her crying, he was deeply stirred in his spirit, and very troubled.
34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Master,” they said, “come and see.”
35 Jesus burst into tears.
36 “Look,” said the Judaeans, “see how much he loved him!”
37 “Well, yes,” some of them said, “but he opened the eyes of a blind man, didn’t he? Couldn’t he have done something to stop this fellow from dying?”
The raising of Lazarus
38 Jesus was once again deeply troubled within himself. He came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was placed in front of it.
39 “Take away the stone,” said Jesus.
“But, Master,” said Martha, the dead man’s sister, “there’ll be a smell! It’s the fourth day already!”
40 “Didn’t I tell you,” said Jesus, “that if you believed you would see God’s glory?”
41 So they took the stone away. Jesus lifted up his eyes.
“Thank you, Father,” he said, “for hearing me! 42 I know you always hear me, but I’ve said this because of the crowd standing around, so that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 With these words, he gave a loud shout: “Lazarus—come out!”
44 And the dead man came out. He was tied up, hand and foot, with strips of linen, and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
“Untie him,” said Jesus, “and let him go.”
Glory and blindness
37 They didn’t believe in him, even though he had done so many signs in front of their eyes. 38 This was so that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:
Lord, who believed the story we told?
Your powerful arm—who saw it unveiled?
39 That’s why they couldn’t believe. As Isaiah again put it,
40 He has caused their eyes to be blind,
and caused their hearts to be hard;
so they wouldn’t see with their eyes,
or understand with their hearts,
or turn, so that I could heal them.
41 Isaiah said this because he saw his glory, and spoke about him.
42 Even so, however, quite a few of the rulers did believe in him. But, because of the Pharisees, they didn’t declare their faith, for fear of being put out of the synagogue. 43 This was because they loved the praise of humans more than the praise of God.
The final challenge
44 “Anyone who believes in me,” shouted Jesus in a loud voice, “doesn’t believe in me, but in the one who sent me! 45 Anyone who sees me sees the one who sent me! 46 I’ve come into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me won’t need to stay in the dark.
47 “If anyone hears my words and doesn’t keep them, I’m not going to judge them. That wasn’t why I came. I came to save the world, not to judge it. 48 Anyone who rejects me and doesn’t hold on to my words has a judge. The word which I have spoken will judge them on the last day.
49 “I haven’t spoken on my own authority. The father who sent me gave me his own command about what I should say and speak. 50 And I know that his command is the life of the coming age. What I speak, then, is what the father has told me to speak.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.