Category: John

[11:17] When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had been buried four days before.

[11:18] Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem,

[11:19] and many Judeans had come to see Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother's death.

[11:20] When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house.

[11:21] Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, Lord, my brother would not have died!

[11:22] But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask him for.”

[11:23] “Your brother will rise to life,” Jesus told her.

[11:24] “I know,” she replied, “that he will rise to life on the last day.”

[11:25] Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die;

[11:26] and those who live and believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

[11:27] “Yes, Lord!” she answered. “I do believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

[11:28] After Martha said this, she went back and called her sister Mary privately. “The Teacher is here,” she told her, “and is asking for you.”

[11:29] When Mary heard this, she got up and hurried out to meet him. (

[11:30] Jesus had not yet arrived in the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.)

[11:31] The people who were in the house with Mary comforting her followed her when they saw her get up and hurry out. They thought that she was going to the grave to weep there.

[11:32] Mary arrived where Jesus was, and as soon as she saw him, she fell at his feet. “Lord,” she said, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died!”

[11:33] Jesus saw her weeping, and he saw how the people with her were weeping also; his heart was touched, and he was deeply moved.

[11:34] “Where have you buried him?” he asked them. “Come and see, Lord,” they answered.

[11:35] Jesus wept.

[11:36] “See how much he loved him!” the people said.

[11:37] But some of them said, “He gave sight to the blind man, didn't he? Could he not have kept Lazarus from dying?”

[11:38] Deeply moved once more, Jesus went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone placed at the entrance.

[11:39] “Take the stone away!” Jesus ordered. Martha, the dead man's sister, answered, “There will be a bad smell, Lord. He has been buried four days!”

[11:40] Jesus said to her, “Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believed?”

[11:41] They took the stone away. Jesus looked up and said, “I thank you, Father, that you listen to me.

[11:42] I know that you always listen to me, but I say this for the sake of the people here, so that they will believe that you sent me.”

[11:43] After he had said this, he called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

[11:44] He came out, his hands and feet wrapped in grave cloths, and with a cloth around his face. “Untie him,” Jesus told them, “and let him go.”

[11:45] Many of the people who had come to visit Mary saw what Jesus did, and they believed in him.

[11:46] But some of them returned to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

[11:47] So the Pharisees and the chief priests met with the Council and said, “What shall we do? Look at all the miracles this man is performing!

[11:48] If we let him go on in this way, everyone will believe in him, and the Roman authorities will take action and destroy our Temple and our nation!”

[11:49] One of them, named Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, said, “What fools you are!

[11:50] Don't you realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people, instead of having the whole nation destroyed?”

[11:51] Actually, he did not say this of his own accord; rather, as he was High Priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus was going to die for the Jewish people,

[11:52] and not only for them, but also to bring together into one body all the scattered people of God.

[11:53] From that day on the Jewish authorities made plans to kill Jesus.

[11:54] So Jesus did not travel openly in Judea, but left and went to a place near the desert, to a town named Ephraim, where he stayed with the disciples.

[11:55] The time for the Passover Festival was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to perform the ritual of purification before the festival.

[11:56] They were looking for Jesus, and as they gathered in the Temple, they asked one another, “What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?”

[11:57] The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where Jesus was, he must report it, so that they could arrest him.

[12:1] Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, the man he had raised from death.

[12:2] They prepared a dinner for him there, which Martha helped serve; Lazarus was one of those who were sitting at the table with Jesus.

[12:3] Then Mary took a whole pint of a very expensive perfume made of pure nard, poured it on Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The sweet smell of the perfume filled the whole house.

[12:4] One of Jesus' disciples, Judas Iscariot—the one who was going to betray him—said,

[12:5] “Why wasn't this perfume sold for three hundred silver coins and the money given to the poor?”

[12:6] He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. He carried the money bag and would help himself from it.

[12:7] But Jesus said, “Leave her alone! Let her keep what she has for the day of my burial.

[12:8] You will always have poor people with you, but you will not always have me.”

[12:9] A large number of people heard that Jesus was in Bethany, so they went there, not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from death.

[12:10] So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus too,

[12:11] because on his account many Jews were rejecting them and believing in Jesus.

[12:12] The next day the large crowd that had come to the Passover Festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

[12:13] So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Praise God! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! God bless the King of Israel!”

[12:14] Jesus found a donkey and rode on it, just as the scripture says,

[12:15] “Do not be afraid, city of Zion! Here comes your king, riding on a young donkey.”

[12:16] His disciples did not understand this at the time; but when Jesus had been raised to glory, they remembered that the scripture said this about him and that they had done this for him.

[12:17] The people who had been with Jesus when he called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from death had reported what had happened.

[12:18] That was why the crowd met him—because they heard that he had performed this miracle.

[12:19] The Pharisees then said to one another, “You see, we are not succeeding at all! Look, the whole world is following him!”

[12:20] Some Greeks were among those who had gone to Jerusalem to worship during the festival.

[12:21] They went to Philip (he was from Bethsaida in Galilee) and said, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”

[12:22] Philip went and told Andrew, and the two of them went and told Jesus.

[12:23] Jesus answered them, “The hour has now come for the Son of Man to receive great glory.

[12:24] I am telling you the truth: a grain of wheat remains no more than a single grain unless it is dropped into the ground and dies. If it does die, then it produces many grains.

[12:25] Those who love their own life will lose it; those who hate their own life in this world will keep it for life eternal.

[12:26] Whoever wants to serve me must follow me, so that my servant will be with me where I am. And my Father will honor anyone who serves me.

[12:27] “Now my heart is troubled—and what shall I say? Shall I say, ‘Father, do not let this hour come upon me’? But that is why I came—so that I might go through this hour of suffering.

[12:28] Father, bring glory to your name!” Then a voice spoke from heaven, “I have brought glory to it, and I will do so again.”

[12:29] The crowd standing there heard the voice, and some of them said it was thunder, while others said, “An angel spoke to him!”

[12:30] But Jesus said to them, “It was not for my sake that this voice spoke, but for yours.

[12:31] Now is the time for this world to be judged; now the ruler of this world will be overthrown.

[12:32] When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me.” (

[12:33] In saying this he indicated the kind of death he was going to suffer.)

[12:34] The crowd answered, “Our Law tells us that the Messiah will live forever. How, then, can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

[12:35] Jesus answered, “The light will be among you a little longer. Continue on your way while you have the light, so that the darkness will not come upon you; for the one who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.

[12:36] Believe in the light, then, while you have it, so that you will be the people of the light.”

[12:36] After Jesus said this, he went off and hid himself from them.

[12:37] Even though he had performed all these miracles in their presence, they did not believe in him,

[12:38] so that what the prophet Isaiah had said might come true: “Lord, who believed the message we told? To whom did the Lord reveal his power?”

[12:39] And so they were not able to believe, because Isaiah also said,

[12:40] “God has blinded their eyes and closed their minds, so that their eyes would not see, and their minds would not understand, and they would not turn to me, says God, for me to heal them.”

[12:41] Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him.

[12:42] Even then, many Jewish authorities believed in Jesus; but because of the Pharisees they did not talk about it openly, so as not to be expelled from the synagogue.

[12:43] They loved human approval rather than the approval of God.