Book of Common Prayer
The judgment of James
12 The whole company was silent, and listened to Barnabas and Paul describing the signs and wonders which God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they had finished, James replied.
“My dear brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Symeon has explained how, at the beginning, God graciously favored the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his own name. 15 This, indeed, is in accordance with the words of the prophets, which say,
16 After this I will return, and will rebuild the tabernacle of David which had collapsed,
and I will build the ruins again, and set them straight,
17 so that the rest of the human race may seek the Lord,
and all the nations upon whom my name has been called.
Thus says the Lord, who has made these things 18 known from of old.
19 “Therefore this is my judgment: we should not cause extra difficulties for those of the Gentiles who have turned to God. 20 Rather, we should send them a message, warning them to keep away from things that have been polluted by idols, from fornication, from what has been strangled, and from blood. 21 Moses, after all, has from ancient times had people proclaiming him from city to city, since he is read in the synagogues sabbath after sabbath.”
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.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.