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The Death of Lazarus
1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from
Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This
Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one
who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her
hair. 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one
you love is sick.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will
not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s
Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha
and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus
was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then
he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews
there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of
daylight? Those who walk in the daytime will not stumble,
for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when people
walk at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them,
“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there
to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will
get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but
his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15
and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may
believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus ) said to the
rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with
him.”
Jesus Comforts the Sisters of Lazarus
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had
already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was
less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had
come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their
brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she
went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been
here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that
even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the
resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the
life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they
die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are
the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the
world.”
28 After she had said this, she went back and called
her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and
is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up
quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered
the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met
him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house,
comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out,
they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to
mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw
him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been
here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had
come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in
spirit and troubled.
34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see,
Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the
eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It
was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
39 “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said
Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a
bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you
believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up
and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I
knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the
benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe
that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud
voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his
hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth
around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave
clothes and let him go.”
The Plot to Kill Jesus
45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit
Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.
46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what
Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees
called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we
accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing
many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will
believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away
both our temple and our nation.”
49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high
priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You
do not realize that it is better for you that one man die
for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest
that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish
nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the
scattered children of God, to bring them together and make
them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his
life.
54 Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly
among the Jews. Instead he withdrew to a region near the
wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed
with his disciples.
55 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover,
many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their
ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. 56 They kept
looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts
they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming
to the festival at all?” 57 But the chief priests and the
Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where
Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.
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Cults 
Why Did God Permit Sin?
