New Testament in a Year

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^[a] 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^[b] 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^[c] 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.^[d] Instead, he went from there^[e] 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.