1Now a certain man, named Lazarus, was sick. He was of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister, Martha.
2 Lazarus was their brother (Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair.)
3So his sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick”.
4When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness will not end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God might be glorified by it.
5Although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus,
6When He heard that Lazarus was sick, He remained where He was two more days.
7Then, He said to His disciples, “Let us go back to Judaea.
8His disciples said to Him, “Master, lately the Jews there have tried to stone You; and You want to go there again?
9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the day will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world.
10It is when they walk in the night that they stumble, because they have no light.”
11After He had said this, He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going, that I may awaken him out of his sleep.”
12His disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he shall be fine”.
13However, Jesus had spoken of His death; but they thought that He had spoken of merely taking rest in sleep.
14So then said Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.
15And for your sakes I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him”.
16Then Thomas, (also called Didymus), said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17Then when Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already been in the grave four days.
18Now Bethany was about fifteen furlongs (less than two miles) from Jerusalem.
19And many of the Jews had come to comfort Martha and Mary over the loss of their brother.
20And when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met Him; but Mary remained in their house.
21Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
22But I know, that even now, whatever You will ask of God, God will give to You.”
23Jesus said to her, “Your brother shall rise again”.
24Martha replied, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day”.
25Jesus told, “I am the resurrection, and the life; anyone that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live;
26And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
27She said to Him, “Yea, Lord; I believe that You are the Christ (Messiah), the Son of God, Who was to come into the world”.
28And when she had so said, she went back, and called Mary, her sister, privately, and said, “The Master has come, and is asking for you.
29As soon as Mary heard that, she arose quickly, and came to meet Him.
30Now Jesus had not yet entered the town, but was still where Martha had met Him.
31Then the Jews, who were in the house to comfort her, when they saw Mary rise and go out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the grave to mourn there.”
32Then, when Mary got to where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell at His feet, saying, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would never have died.”
33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled,
34And He asked, “Where have you laid him?” They said, “Lord, come and see”.
35Jesus wept.
36Then the Jews said, “Look how He loved him!”
37And some of them said, “Could not this Man, Who opened the eyes of the blind, have kept this man from dying?”
38Jesus, again deeply moved within Himself, came to the grave. It was a cave, and a large stone lay across the entrance.
39Jesus said, “Roll the stone away”. Martha said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a bad odor; for he has been dead four days.
40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that, if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?”
41Then they rolled away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
42And I knew that You always hear Me; but for the benefit of the people standing here, I said it aloud, that they may believe that You have sent Me.”
43And when He said this, He called with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”.
44And the dead man came out, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes; and his face was wrapped with a napkin. Jesus said to them, “Remove the grave-clothes, and let him go.”
45Then many of the Jews who had come to visit 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 the Pharisees convened a council, and said, “What are we going to do? For this Man does many miracles.
48If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him; and the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.
49And one of them, named Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, spoke up: “You know nothing at all,
50Nor consider that it is better for us that one Man dies for the people, than have the whole nation perish”.
51And this he did not say on his own; but, being high priest, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation;
52And not only for their nation, but that He would also gather together all the children of God, that were scattered abroad, into one.
53So from that time forward, they plotted together to put Him to death.
54Therefore, Jesus, no longer walked publicly among the people of Judea; but withdrew from there to a region near to the wilderness, into a village called Ephraim, where He stayed with His disciples.
55And when the Jews' Passover drew near; many left that region and went up to Jerusalem for ceremonial purification for the Passover.
56They kept watching for Jesus, and said among themselves, as they stood in the temple, “What do you think, will He not come to the festival at all?”
57Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if any man knew where He was, he should report it, that they might arrest Him. Easy Reader Bible: Purple Letter Edition © 2023 by Jim Musser. Used by Permission. All rights Reserved. Bible Hub |
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