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At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
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(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet (a) with her hair.)
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So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”
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When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
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Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
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So on hearing that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two days,
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and then He said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
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“Rabbi,” they replied, “the Jews just tried to stone You, and You are going back there?”
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Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world.
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But if anyone walks at night, he will stumble, because he has no light.”
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After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”
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His disciples replied, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will get better.”
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They thought that Jesus was talking about actual sleep, but He was speaking about the death of Lazarus.
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So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
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and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
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Then Thomas called Didymus (b) said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”
Jesus Comforts Martha and Mary
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When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already spent four days in the tomb.
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Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, a little less than two miles (c) away,
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and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them in the loss of their brother.
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So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him; but Mary stayed at home.
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Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
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But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask of Him.”
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“Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.
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Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
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Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.
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And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
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“Yes, Lord,” she answered, “I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
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After Martha had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside to tell her, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.”
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And when Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him.
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Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him.
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When the Jews who were in the house consoling Mary saw how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
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When Mary came to Jesus and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
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When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit (d) and troubled.
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“Where have you put him?” He asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they answered.
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Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”
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But some of them asked, “Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus
(Acts 9:36–43)
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Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
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“Take away the stone,” Jesus said. “Lord, by now he stinks,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man. “It has already been four days.”
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Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
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So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted His eyes upward and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
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I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me.”
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After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
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The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth.(e) “Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them.
The Plot to Kill Jesus
(Matthew 26:1–5; Mark 14:1–2; Luke 22:1–2)
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Therefore many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him.
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But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
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Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin (f) and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.
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If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
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But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all!
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You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
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Caiaphas did not say this on his own. Instead, as high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation,
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and not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to gather them together into one.
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So from that day on they plotted to kill Him.
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As a result, Jesus no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but He withdrew to a town called Ephraim in an area near the wilderness. And He stayed there with the disciples.
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Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover.
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They kept looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple courts,(g) “What do you think? Will He come to the feast at all?”
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But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where He was must report it, so that they could arrest Him.
Footnotes