Jesus at the Feast of Dedication

22  Then came the feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem. 23  It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple area in Solomon’s Portico. 24  The Jewish leaders surrounded him and asked, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25  Jesus replied, “I told you and you do not believe. The deeds I do in my Father’s name testify about me. 26  But you refuse to believe because you are not my sheep. 27  My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. 29  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. 30  The Father and I are one.”

31  The Jewish leaders picked up rocks again to stone him to death. 32  Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good deeds from the Father. For which one of them are you going to stone me?” 33  The Jewish leaders replied, “We are not going to stone you for a good deed but for blasphemy, because you, a man, are claiming to be God.”

34  Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘ I said, you are gods’? 35  If those people to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ (and the scripture cannot be broken), 36  do you say about the one whom the Father set apart and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37  If I do not perform the deeds of my Father, do not believe me. 38  But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the deeds, so that you may come to know and understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” 39  Then they attempted again to seize him, but he escaped their clutches.

40  Jesus went back across the Jordan River again to the place where John had been baptizing at an earlier time, and he stayed there. 41  Many came to him and began to say, “John performed no miraculous sign, but everything John said about this man was true!” 42  And many believed in Jesus there.

11  Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. 2  (Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) 3  So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, look, the one you love is sick.” 4  When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not lead to death, but to God’s glory, so that the Son of God 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 remained in the place where he was for two more days. 7  Then after this, he said to his disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8  The disciples replied, “Rabbi, the Jewish leaders were just now trying to stone you to death! Are you going there again?” 9  Jesus replied, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If anyone walks around in the daytime, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10  But if anyone walks around at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

11  After he said this, he added, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But I am going there to awaken him.” 12  Then the disciples replied, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13  (Now Jesus had been talking about his death, but they thought he had been talking about real sleep.)

14  Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15  and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16  So Thomas (called Didymus ) said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go too, so that we may die with him.”