[11:1] A man named Lazarus, who lived in Bethany, became sick. Bethany was the town where Mary and her sister Martha lived. (
[11:2] This Mary was the one who poured the perfume on the Lord's feet and wiped them with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.)
[11:3] The sisters sent Jesus a message: “Lord, your dear friend is sick.”
[11:4] When Jesus heard it, he said, “The final result of this sickness will not be the death of Lazarus; this has happened in order to bring glory to God, and it will be the means by which the Son of God will receive glory.”
[11:5] Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
[11:6] Yet when he received the news that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days.
[11:7] Then he said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
[11:8] “Teacher,” the disciples answered, “just a short time ago the people there wanted to stone you; and are you planning to go back?”
[11:9] Jesus said, “A day has twelve hours, doesn't it? So those who walk in broad daylight do not stumble, for they see the light of this world.
[11:10] But if they walk during the night they stumble, because they have no light.”
[11:11] Jesus said this and then added, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I will go and wake him up.”
[11:12] The disciples answered, “If he is asleep, Lord, he will get well.”
[11:13] Jesus meant that Lazarus had died, but they thought he meant natural sleep.
[11:14] So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
[11:15] but for your sake I am glad that I was not with him, so that you will believe. Let us go to him.”
[11:16] Thomas (called the Twin) said to his fellow disciples, “Let us all go along with the Teacher, so that we may die with him!”