John 11-12

John 11

¹At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

²(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.)

³So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”

⁴When 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.”

⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

⁶So on hearing that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two days,

⁷and then He said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

⁸“Rabbi,” they replied, “the Jews just tried to stone You, and You are going back there?”

⁹Jesus 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.

¹⁰But if anyone walks at night, he will stumble, because he has no light.”

¹¹After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”

¹²His disciples replied, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will get better.”

¹³They thought that Jesus was talking about actual sleep, but He was speaking about the death of Lazarus.

¹⁴So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,

¹⁵and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

¹⁶Then Thomas called Didymus said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

¹⁷When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already spent four days in the tomb.

¹⁸Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, a little less than two miles away,

¹⁹and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them in the loss of their brother.

²⁰So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him; but Mary stayed at home.

²¹Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.

²²But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask of Him.”

²³“Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.

²⁴Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.

²⁶And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she answered, “I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

²⁸After 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.”

²⁹And when Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him.

³⁰Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him.

³¹When 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.

³²When 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.”

³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

³⁴“Where have you put him?” He asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they answered.

³⁵Jesus wept.

³⁶Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

³⁷But some of them asked, “Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?”

³⁸Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

³⁹“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.”

⁴⁰Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

⁴¹So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted His eyes upward and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.

⁴²I 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.”

⁴³After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

⁴⁴The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth. “Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them.

⁴⁵Therefore many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him.

⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

⁴⁷Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.

⁴⁸If 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.”

⁴⁹But one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all!

⁵⁰You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

⁵¹Caiaphas did not say this on his own. Instead, as high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation,

⁵²and not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to gather them together into one.

⁵³So from that day on they plotted to kill Him.

⁵⁴As 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.

⁵⁵Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover.

⁵⁶They kept looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple courts, “What do you think? Will He come to the feast at all?”

⁵⁷But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where He was must report it, so that they could arrest Him.

John 12

¹Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.

²So they hosted a dinner for Jesus there. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with Him.

³Then Mary took about a pint of expensive perfume, made of pure nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

⁴But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was going to betray Him, asked,

⁵“Why wasn’t this perfume sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”

⁶Judas did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money bag, he used to take from what was put into it.

⁷“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “She has kept this perfume in preparation for the day of My burial.

⁸The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me.”

⁹Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews learned that Jesus was there. And they came not only because of Him, but also to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.

¹⁰So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well,

¹¹for on account of him many of the Jews were deserting them and believing in Jesus.

¹²The next day the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

¹³They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting: “Hosanna!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!”

¹⁴Finding a young donkey, Jesus sat on it, as it is written:

¹⁵“Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion. See, your King is coming, seated on the colt of a donkey.”

¹⁶At first His disciples did not understand these things, but after Jesus was glorified they remembered what had been done to Him, and they realized that these very things had also been written about Him.

¹⁷Meanwhile, many people continued to testify that they had been with Jesus when He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead.

¹⁸That is also why the crowd went out to meet Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.

¹⁹Then the Pharisees said to one another, “You can see that this is doing you no good. Look how the whole world has gone after Him!”

²⁰Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast.

²¹They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and requested of him, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”

²²Philip relayed this appeal to Andrew, and both of them went and told Jesus.

²³But Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

²⁴Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

²⁵Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

²⁶If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, My servant will be as well. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

²⁷Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it is for this purpose that I have come to this hour.

²⁸Father, glorify Your name!” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

²⁹The crowd standing there heard it and said that it had thundered. Others said that an angel had spoken to Him.

³⁰In response, Jesus said, “This voice was not for My benefit, but yours.

³¹Now judgment is upon this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out.

³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to Myself.”

³³He said this to indicate the kind of death He was going to die.

³⁴The crowd replied, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever. So how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

³⁵Then Jesus told them, “For a little while longer, the Light will be among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

³⁶While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of light.” After Jesus had spoken these things, He went away and was hidden from them.

³⁷Although Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still did not believe in Him.

³⁸This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

³⁹For this reason they were unable to believe. For again, Isaiah says:

⁴⁰“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”

⁴¹Isaiah said these things because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.

⁴²Nevertheless, many of the leaders believed in Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.

⁴³For they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

⁴⁴Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in Me does not believe in Me alone, but in the One who sent Me.

⁴⁵And whoever sees Me sees the One who sent Me.

⁴⁶I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should remain in darkness.

⁴⁷As for anyone who hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

⁴⁸There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not receive My words: The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

⁴⁹I have not spoken on My own, but the Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it.

⁵⁰And I know that His command leads to eternal life. So I speak exactly what the Father has told Me to say.”