Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, died.

1One time there was a man whose name was Lazarus who was very sick. He lived in Bethany village, where his older sisters Mary and Martha also lived.

2Mary was the woman who later poured perfume on the feet of the Lord Jesus, and then wiped his feet with her hair.

3So the two sisters sent someone to tell Jesus about Lazarus, saying, “Lord, the one you love very much is very sick.”

4They hoped that Jesus would come, but when Jesus heard the message, he said, “His being sick will not end in his dying. Instead, it will result in people realizing how great God is, and that I, God’s son, may be honored {that people may honor me, God’s son}, because of what I will do.”

5Jesus loved Martha and her younger sister Mary and Lazarus.

6But when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days.

7But Jesus wanted to see Lazarus. So he said to us disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”

8We said, “Teacher, just a short while ago the Jewish leaders [SYN] wanted to kill you by throwing stones at you. So ◄we think that you should not go back there again!/are you sure that you want to go back there again?► [RHQ]”

9To show us that nothing bad could happen to him until the time that God had chosen [MET], Jesus replied, “There are [RHQ] twelve hours in the daytime, which is enough time to do what God wants us to do. People who walk in the daytime will not stumble over things they cannot see, because they see things by the light from the sun.

10It is when people walk in the nighttime that they stumble over things, because they have no light.”

11After he said that, he told us, “Our friend Lazarus has gone to sleep. But I will go there so that I can wake him up.”

12So we said to him, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will get well. So you do not need to risk your life by going there.”

13Jesus was speaking figuratively about Lazarus’ death, but we thought that he was talking about really being asleep.

14So then he told us plainly, “Lazarus is dead.

15But for your sake I am glad that I was not there when he died, because I want you to believe more firmly that I ◄am the Messiah/came from God►. So now, instead of staying here, let’s go to him.”

16Then Thomas, who was {whom they} called ‘The Twin’, said to the rest of us disciples, “Let’s all go, so that we may die with Jesus when his enemies kill him.”

Lazarus’ sisters expressed disappointment that Jesus did not come and heal Lazarus before he died.

17When we arrived close to Bethany, someone told Jesus that Lazarus had died and had been buried and his body had been in the tomb for four days.

18Bethany is less than ◄two miles/three kilometers► from Jerusalem.

19Many Jews had come from Jerusalem to console Martha and Mary over the death of their younger brother.

20When Martha heard someone say that Jesus was coming, she went along the road to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house.

21When Martha got to where Jesus was, she said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died because you would have healed him!

22But I know that even now God will do for you whatever you ask concerning my brother.”

23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will become alive again!”

24Martha said to him, “I know that he will become alive again when all people become alive again on the Judgment day.”

25Jesus said to her, “I am the one who enables people to become alive again and who causes people to live eternally. Those who believe in me, even if they die, will live again.

26Furthermore, all those who believe in me while they are alive, their souls will not die forever. Do you believe that?”

27She said to him, “Yes, Lord! I believe that you are the Messiah, ◄the Son of God/the man who is also God►. You are the one God promised to send into the world!”

28After she said that, she returned to the house and took her younger sister, Mary, aside and said to her, “The Teacher is close to our village, and he wants to talk to you.”

29When Mary heard that, she got up quickly and went to him.

30Jesus had not yet entered the village; he was still at the place where Martha met him.

31The Jews who were in the house with Mary, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go outside. So they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb where they had buried Lazarus, in order to cry there.

32When Mary got to where Jesus was and saw him, she prostrated herself at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my younger brother would not have died!”

33When Jesus saw her crying, and saw that the Jews who had come with her were also crying, he was very angry that Satan had caused Lazarus to die (OR, very troubled) and disturbed in his spirit.

34He said, “Where have you buried ◄him/his body►?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”

35Jesus began to cry.

36Then some of the Jews said, “Look how much he loved Lazarus!”

37But some others said, “He enabled a blind man to see. So ◄he should have been able to heal this man so that he did not die!/why did he not heal this man so that he did not die?► [RHQ]”

38Within himself Jesus was again very angry about Lazarus dying (OR, very troubled). He came to the tomb. It was a cave. The entrance had been covered with a large stone.

39Jesus said, “Take away the stone!” Martha, who, as I mentioned before, was an older sister of the man who had died, said, “Lord, his body has been in the tomb for four days, so now there will be a bad smell!”

40Jesus said to her, “I told [RHQ] you that if you believed in ◄me/what I can do►, you would see how great God is! Have you forgotten that?”

Jesus caused Lazarus to be alive again.

41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up toward heaven and said, “My Father, I thank you that you heard me when I prayed about this earlier.

42I know that you always hear me when I pray. But instead of just praying silently, I said that for the sake of the people who are standing here. I want them to believe that you sent me.”

43After he said that, he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”

44The man who had been dead came out! The strips of cloth were still wrapped around his hands and feet, and a cloth was still around his face, but he came out! Jesus said to them, “Take off the cloths so that he can walk easily!” So they did that.

45As a result, many of the Jews who had come to see Mary and who had seen what Jesus did, believed that he ◄was the Messiah/had come from God►.

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

47So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered all the members of the Jewish Council together. They started saying to each other, “What are we going to do about Jesus? He is performing many miracles!

48If we allow him to keep doing this, everyone will believe ◄in him/that he is the Messiah►, and they will make him their king. Then the Roman army will come and destroy our Temple and our whole nation of Israel!”

The Jewish leaders decided to kill Jesus.

49One of the Jewish Council members was Caiaphas. He was the Jewish high priest that year. Hinting that they should get rid of Jesus, he said to them, “You talk as though you do not know anything [HYP]!

50You do not realize that it would be much better for us if one man died for the sake of the people rather than that the Romans kill all the people of our Jewish nation.”

51He said that, not because he thought of it himself. Instead, since he was the high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the whole Jewish nation.

52But he was also prophesying that Jesus would die, not just for the Jews, but for all the people living in other lands who would belong to God, in order that he would unite all of them into one group.

53So from that day the Jewish leaders started to make plans how they could kill Jesus.

54Because of that, Jesus no longer traveled around publicly among the Jewish people. Instead, he left Jerusalem, along with us disciples, and went to a village called Ephraim, in an area near the desolate region. We stayed there for a while.

55When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover celebration, many Jews went up to Jerusalem from other places in the country. They went there to perform the rituals to make themselves acceptable to God before the Passover celebration started.

56The Jewish chief priests and Pharisees issued an order that if anyone found out where Jesus was, that person should report it to them, in order that they could seize him. So the people thought that Jesus would probably not dare to come to the celebration. But they kept looking for him, and as they were standing in the Temple courtyard they were saying to each other, “What do you think? He will not come to the celebration, will he?”