Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The valley of dry bones^[a]

37 The Lord took hold of me with great power. In a vision, the Lord's Spirit took me to the middle of a valley. Bones covered all the ground there. ² The Lord made me walk up and down among the bones. I could see many bones there, on the ground in the valley. They were completely dry.

³ He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones become alive again?’

I said, ‘Almighty Lord, only you know the answer.’

⁴ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones. Say to them, “Dry bones, listen to the Lord's message! ⁵ This is what the Almighty Lord says to you bones: Listen! I will put breath into you and you will become alive. ⁶ I will join you together and I will put meat on you. I will cover you with skin. I will put breath into you and you will become alive. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” ’^[b]

⁷ So I prophesied, as the Lord had commanded me to do. While I was still speaking, there was a noise. It was the sound of the bones as they knocked against each other when they joined together. ⁸ While I watched, I saw meat come and join to the bones. Then skin covered them. But there was no breath in them yet.

⁹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Prophesy to the wind, son of man. Speak my message to the wind. Say, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Blow from all directions and put breath into these dead bodies! Cause them to become alive again.” ’

¹⁰ So I spoke the message that the Lord had commanded me to speak. Breath went into those dead bodies and they became alive. They stood up on their feet. They were as many as a great army.

¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are a picture of all Israel's people. The Israelites are saying, “Our bones are dead and dry. There are no good things that we can hope for. We have come to an end.” ¹² So prophesy and say to them, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Listen, my people! I will soon open up your graves. I will bring you out of your graves. I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ When that happens to you, my people, you will know that I am the Lord. ¹⁴ I will put the breath of my Spirit in you, and you will become alive. I will let you live safely in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken. You will know that I have done what I said I would do. That is what the Lordsays.” ’^[c]

A song to sing as we climb.

I have great trouble

⁶ People who let their human thoughts rule them will die. But people who think about what God's Spirit wants will have life with God. They will have peace inside themselves. ⁷ If our weak human thoughts rule us, we become God's enemies. People like that do not want to obey God's Law. They are not even able to obey it. ⁸ People who let their human thoughts rule them cannot make God happy.

⁹ But you are not like that. You no longer obey your weak human thoughts. Instead, you obey God's Spirit as your guide. That is true if God's Spirit is really living in you. But if anyone does not have Christ's Spirit in them, that person does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But, if Christ lives in you, you have a new life because of his Spirit. Your body will die one day because of the power of sin. But your spirit lives because Christ has made you right with God. ¹¹ God raised Jesus, to make him alive again after his death. Now God's Spirit lives in you. So God, who raised Christ from death, will also cause your human bodies to live again. He will do that by his Spirit who lives in you.

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.