Read the Gospels in 40 Days

The Death of Lazarus

11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² Mary was the woman who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was the one who was ill. ³ So the sisters sent word to Jesus^[a] and told him, “Lord, the one whom you love is ill.”

⁴ But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness isn’t meant to end in death. It’s for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ Yet, when he heard that Lazarus^[b] was ill, he stayed where he was for two more days.

⁷ After this, he told the disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”

⁸ The disciples told him, “Rabbi,^[c] the Jewish leaders^[d] were just now trying to stone you to death, and you are going back there again?”

⁹ Jesus replied, “There are twelve hours in the day, aren’t there? If anyone walks during the day he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if anyone walks at night he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” ¹¹ These were the things he said.

Then after this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m leaving to wake him up.”

¹² So the disciples told him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” ¹³ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was speaking about resting or sleeping.

¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died. ¹⁵ For your sake I’m glad that I wasn’t there, so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.”

¹⁶ Then Thomas, who was called the Twin,^[e] told his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too, so that we may die with him!”

Jesus the Resurrection and the Life

¹⁷ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus^[f] had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia^[g] away, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. ²⁰ As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home.

²¹ Martha told Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, he^[h] will give it to you.”

²³ Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴ Martha told him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

²⁵ Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.^[i] The person who believes in me, even though he dies, will live. ²⁶ Indeed, everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe that?”

²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I believe that you are the Messiah,^[j] the Son of God, the one who was to come into the world.”

²⁸ When she had said this, she went away and called her sister Mary and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you!”

²⁹ As soon as Mary^[k] heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet arrived at the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ When the Jews who had been with her, consoling her in the house, saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she had gone to the tomb to cry there.

³² As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet and told him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”

³³ When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was greatly troubled in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴ He asked, “Where have you put him?”

They told him, “Lord, come and see.”

³⁵ Jesus burst into tears.

³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how much he loved him!”

³⁷ But some of them said, “Surely the one who opened the eyes of the blind man could have kept this man from dying, couldn’t he?”

Jesus Brings Lazarus Back to Life

³⁸ Groaning deeply again, Jesus came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying in front of it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”

Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there must be a stench by now, because he’s been dead for four days.”

⁴⁰ Jesus told her, “I told you that if you believed you would see God’s glory, didn’t I?” ⁴¹ So they removed the stone.

Then Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. ⁴² I know 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.”

⁴³ After saying this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet tied with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a handkerchief. Jesus told them, “Untie him, and let him go.”

The Jewish Council Plans to Kill Jesus^(A)

⁴⁵ Many of the Jews who had come with Mary and who had observed what Jesus did believed in him. ⁴⁶ Some of them, however, went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷ So the high priests and the Pharisees assembled the Council^[l] and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. ⁴⁸ If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our Temple^[m] and our nation.”

⁴⁹ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, told them, “You don’t know anything! ⁵⁰ You don’t realize that it is better for you^[n] to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” ⁵¹ Now he did not say this on his own initiative. As high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, ⁵² and not only for the nation, but that he would also gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad. ⁵³ So from that day on they resolved to put him to death. ⁵⁴ As a result, Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews.^[o] Instead, he went from there^[p] to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness. There he remained with his disciples.

⁵⁵ Now the Jewish Passover was approaching, and before the Passover many people from the countryside went up to Jerusalem to purify themselves. ⁵⁶ They kept looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the Temple, “What do you think? Surely he won’t come to the festival, will he?” ⁵⁷ Now the high priests and the Pharisees had given orders that whoever knew where he was should tell them so that they could arrest him.

Mary Anoints Jesus^(B)

12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived in Bethany, where Lazarus lived,^[q] the man whom Jesus had raised from the dead. ² There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. ³ Mary took a litron^[r] of very expensive perfume made of pure nard and anointed Jesus’ feet. She wiped his feet with her hair, and the house became filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

⁴ But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, who was going to betray him, asked, ⁵ “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for 300 denarii^[s] and the money^[t] given to the destitute?” ⁶ He said this, not because he cared about the destitute, but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the moneybag and would steal what was put into it.

⁷ Then Jesus said, “Leave her alone so she can observe the day of my burial, ⁸ because you will always have the destitute with you, but you won’t always have me.”

The Plot against Lazarus

⁹ When the large crowd of Jews realized that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰ So the high priests planned to kill Lazarus, too, ¹¹ since he was the reason why so many of the Jews were leaving to believe in Jesus.

The King Enters Jerusalem^(C)

¹² The next day, the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem. ¹³ So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,

¹⁴ Then Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written:

¹⁶ At first, his disciples didn’t understand these things. However, when Jesus had been glorified, they remembered that these things had been written about him and that people^[y] had done these things to him. ¹⁷ So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify to what they had seen.^{[z] 18} The crowd was going out to meet Jesus^[aa] because they had heard that he had performed this sign. ¹⁹ Then the Pharisees told one another, “You see, there is nothing you can do. Look, the world has gone after him!”

Some Greeks Ask to See Jesus

²⁰ Now some Greeks were among those who had come up to worship at the festival. ²¹ They went to Philip (who was from Bethsaida in Galilee) and told him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”

²² Philip went and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³ Jesus told them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Truly, I tell all of you^[ab] emphatically, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces a lot of grain. ²⁵ The one who loves his life will destroy it, and the one who hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. ²⁶ If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there my servant will also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

Jesus Speaks about His Death

²⁷ “Now my soul is in turmoil, and what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No! It was for this very reason that I came to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name.”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again!” ²⁹ The crowd standing there heard this and said that it was thunder.

Others were saying, “An angel has spoken to him.”

³⁰ Jesus replied, “This voice is for your benefit, not for mine. ³¹ Now is the time for the judgment of this world to begin.^[ac] Now the ruler of this world will be thrown out. ³² As for me, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” ³³ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was about to die.

³⁴ Then the crowd answered him, “We have learned^[ad] from the Law that the Messiah^[ae] remains forever. So how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

³⁵ Jesus replied to the crowd,^[af] “The light is among you only for a short time. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. The person who walks in the darkness is in the darkness and does not know where he is going. ³⁶ As long as you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he went away and hid from them.

The Unbelief of the Jews

³⁷ Although he had performed numerous signs in their presence, they did not believe in him, ³⁸ so that what the prophet Isaiah spoke might be fulfilled when he said:

³⁹ This is why they could not believe: Isaiah also said,

⁴¹ Isaiah said this when^[am] he saw his glory and spoke about him. ⁴² Yet many people, even some of the authorities, believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not admit it so they would not be thrown out of the synagogue. ⁴³ For they loved the praise of human beings more than the praise of God.

Judgment by Jesus’ Word

⁴⁴ Then Jesus said loudly, “The one who believes in me does not believe in me only, but also^[an] in the one who sent me. ⁴⁵ The one 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 remain in the darkness. ⁴⁷ If anyone hears my words and doesn’t keep them, I don’t condemn him, because I didn’t come to condemn the world, but to save it.^{[ao] 48} The one who rejects me and doesn’t receive my words has something to judge him: The word that I’ve spoken will judge him on the last day, ⁴⁹ because I haven’t spoken on my own authority. Instead, the Father who sent me has himself commanded me what to say and how to speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that what he commands brings eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.”