John 11

1 Now there was a certain man who was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, from the village of Mary and Martha her sister. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. [a] 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, look — the one you love is sick.” [b] 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This sickness is not toward death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that he was sick, then indeed he remained two days in the place where he was; 7 then after this he says to the disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.” 8 The disciples say to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and you are going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world; 10 but if anyone walks in the night he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

11 He said these things, and after this he says to them, “Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep; but I am going so that I may wake him up.” 12 So the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep he will be saved.” [c] 13 But Jesus had spoken about his death; and they thought that he was speaking about the rest of sleep. 14 So then Jesus told them openly, “Lazarus died, 15 and I rejoice for your sake that I was not there, so that you may trust. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, the one called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go too, so that we may die with him.” [d]

17 So when Jesus came he found that he had already been four days in the tomb. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away, [e] 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 So Martha, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him; but Mary was sitting in the house. 21 So Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died; 22 and even now I know that whatever you ask God, God will give you.”

23 Jesus says to her, “Your brother will rise.” 24 Martha says to him, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who trusts in me, even if he dies, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and trusts in me will never die, ever. Do you trust this?” [f] 27 She says to him, “Yes, Lord; I have come to trust that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

28 And having said this she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is calling you.” 29 And when she heard it she got up quickly and was coming to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 So the Jews who were with her in the house and were consoling her, when they saw Mary get up quickly and go out, followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 So when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.”

33 So Jesus, when he saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, was stirred with anger in the spirit and troubled himself, [g] 34 and he said, “Where have you laid him?” They say to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus shed tears. [h] 36 So the Jews were saying, “Look how he loved him.” 37 But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have brought it about that this one too should not die?”

38 So Jesus, again stirred with anger within himself, comes to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying on it. 39 Jesus says, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the man who had died, says to him, “Lord, he already stinks; for he is of the fourth day.” [i] 40 Jesus says to her, “Did I not tell you that if you trust you will see the glory of God?”

41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted his eyes upward and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. 42 And I knew that you always hear me; but I said it because of the crowd standing around, so that they may trust that you sent me.” 43 And when he had said these things he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The man who had died came out, bound feet and hands with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped around with a face cloth. Jesus says to them, “Untie him and let him go.” [j] †

45 So many of the Jews, those who had come to Mary and had watched what he did, trusted in him; 46 but some of them went off to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council, and they were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is doing many signs. [k] 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will trust in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

49 But one of them, Caiaphas, being chief priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, [l] 50 nor do you reckon that it is to your advantage that one man die for the people and the whole nation not perish.” 51 But he did not say this of himself; rather, being chief priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, † 52 and not for the nation only, but so that he might also gather into one the children of God who have been scattered. 53 So from that day on they took counsel to kill him.

54 So Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went away from there to the region near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and he remained there with the disciples. 55 Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves. [m] 56 So they were looking for Jesus and were saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?” 57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given commands that if anyone knew where he was he should report it, so that they might seize him.