The Death of Lazarus
11 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? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks 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 [Thomas (Aramaic) and Didymus (Greek) both mean twin. ]) 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 [Or about 3 kilometers] 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. The one 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 replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is 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, believed 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 people of Judea. 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.
NOTES:
BACK TO:
11:1–44 The raising of Lazarus, the longest continuous the narrative in John outside of the passion account, is the climax of the signs.
It leads directly to the decision of the Sanhedrin to kill Jesus. The theme of
life predominates. Lazarus is a token of the real-life that Jesus dead and
raised will give to all who believe in him. Johannine irony is found in the
fact that Jesus’ gift of life leads to his own death. The story is not found in
the Synoptics, but cf. Mk 5:21 and parallels; Lk 7:11–17. There are also
parallels between this story and Luke’s parable of the rich man and poor
Lazarus (Lk 16:19–31).
In both a man named Lazarus dies; in Luke, there is a
request that he return to convince his contemporaries of the need for faith and
repentance, while in John, Lazarus does return and some belief but others do
not.
11:4 Not to end in death: this is misunderstood by the
disciples as referring to physical death, but it is meant as spiritual death.
11:10 The light is not in him: the ancients apparently did
not grasp clearly the entry of light through the eye; they seem to have thought
of it as being in the eye; cf. Lk 11:34; Mt 6:23.
11:16 Called Didymus: Didymus is the Greek word for twins.
Thomas is derived from the Aramaic word for twin; in an ancient Syriac version
and in the Gospel of Thomas (80:11–12) his given name, Judas, is supplied.
11:18 About two miles: literally, “about fifteen stades”; a
stade was 607 feet.
11:27 The titles here are a summary of titles given to Jesus
earlier in the gospel.
11:33 Became perturbed: a startling phrase in Greek,
literally, “He snorted in spirit,” perhaps in anger at the presence of evil
(death).
11:41 Father: in Aramaic, ’abbā’. See note on Mk 14:36.
11:43 Cried out in a loud voice: a dramatization of Jn 5:28;
“The hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice.”
11:48 The Romans will come: Johannine irony; this is
precisely what happened after Jesus’ death.
11:49 That year: emphasizes the conjunction of the office
and the year. Actually, Caiaphas was high priest A.D. 18–36. The Jews
attributed a gift of prophecy, sometimes unconscious, to the high priest.
11:52 Dispersed children of God: perhaps the “other sheep”
of Jn 10:16.
11:54 Ephraim is usually located about twelve miles
northeast of Jerusalem, where the mountains descend into the Jordan valley.
11:55 Purify: prescriptions for purity were based on Ex
19:10–11, 15; Nm 9:6–14; 2 Chr 30:1–3, 15–18.
The Gospel of John
Online Bible Study in English
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