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UST YHN Chapter 11

11 A man named Lazarus became very ill. He lived in the village of Bethany where his sisters Mary and Martha also lived. 2 This is the same Mary who later would pour perfume on the Lord and would wipe the oil off of his feet with her hair. It was her brother Lazarus who was ill. 3 So the two sisters sent someone to tell Jesus about Lazarus. They said, “Lord, the one whom you love is very ill. Please come!” 4 When Jesus heard about Lazarus’ illness, he said, “This illness will not end in Lazarus’ death. Rather, the purpose of this illness is to reveal how great God is. Lazarus became ill in order that the illness may reveal how great I, the Son of God, am.” 5 (Jesus loved Martha, her sister Mary, and Lazarus.) 6 So when Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, he deliberately remained where he was for two more days.

7 Then after those two days Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go back to the region of Judea.” 8 His disciples said, “Teacher, the Jewish leaders in Judea currently want to kill you with stones! You surely should not return there again!” 9 Jesus replied, “You know that there are 12 hours of daylight. The person who walks during the daytime will walk safely because the light allows him to see where he is going. 10 However, when a person walks during the night, he will stumble because there is no light to allow him to see where he is going.”

11 After saying these things, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus is sleeping, but I will go there to wake him up.” 12 So his disciples told him, “Lord, if he is sleeping, then he will get well.” 13 (Jesus was actually speaking about Lazarus’ death, but his disciples thought that he was talking about actual sleep.) 14 So Jesus told them clearly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 And I rejoice that I was not there when he died. I let this happen so that you may trust in me. This is for your benefit. Rather than staying here, let us go to where he is.” 16 So Thomas, whom they called ‘The Twin,’ said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go with the Teacher in order that we may die with him.”

17 So when Jesus arrived in the village of Bethany, he learned that people had already put Lazarus’ dead body in a tomb four days before then. 18 (Jerusalem was only about three kilometers away from the village of Bethany.) 19 Many Jewish people came to Martha and Mary in Bethany in order to console both of them concerning their brother Lazarus’ death. 20 When Martha heard someone say that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him. Mary did not go with her but stayed in the house. 21 When Martha met Jesus, she said to him, “Lord, if you had only been here sooner, my brother would not be dead! 22 However, even now that he is dead I am certain that God will do for you whatever you ask him to do.” 23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will live again.” 24 Martha told him, “I am certain that my brother will live again when God raises all dead people on the last day when he judges everyone.” 25 Jesus told her, “I am the one who causes dead people to live again. I am the one who gives people eternal life. Whoever trusts in me will live forever, even if his body dies. 26 All those who receive eternal life and trust in me will surely live forever. Do you believe that this is true?” 27 Martha told him, “Yes, I do, Lord! I do indeed believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God. You are the one whom God promised would come into this world.”

28 After she said that, she returned to the house and secretly summoned her sister Mary. She told Mary, “The Teacher has arrived, and he is summoning you.” 29 When Mary heard what her sister said, she rose quickly and went out to meet Jesus. 30 (At that time Jesus had not yet entered the village of Bethany. Rather, he was still at the place where Martha had met him.) 31 The Jewish people who were comforting Mary in her house saw her rise quickly and go outside, so they followed her. They thought that she was going to the tomb where they had buried Lazarus in order to grieve there.

32 When Mary arrived at the place where Jesus had spoken to Martha and saw him, she threw herself down on the ground in front of his feet. She told him, “Lord, if you had only been here sooner, my brother would not be dead!” 33 When Jesus saw her grieving, and the Jewish people with her also grieving, he became extremely agitated. 34 He asked, “Where have you buried his body?” They told him, “Lord, come and see where he is.” 35 Jesus started crying. 36 So the Jewish people who were with Mary said among themselves, “See how much he loved Lazarus!” 37 However, others among them said, “He could enable the blind man to see. But maybe he didn’t have enough power to prevent this man from dying!”

38 Jesus then was emotionally agitated again when he came to the tomb. (It was a cave, and a large rock was covering its entrance.) 39 Jesus said, “Remove the rock from the cave’s entrance.” However, Lazarus’ sister Martha told him, “Lord, by this time his body will smell bad because he died four days ago.” 40 Jesus told her, “I surely told you that if you trusted me, you would see how great God is!”

41 So some people removed the rock from the cave’s entrance. Jesus looked up toward heaven and said, “Father, I thank you for listening to me. 42 I know that you always listen to me. Nevertheless, I said that for the sake of the people standing here. I said this in order that they might be confident that you sent me.” 43 After he said that prayer, he shouted loudly, “Lazarus, come out of the tomb!” 44 The man who had died came out of the tomb! The people who prepared him for burial had wrapped his feet and hands with strips of cloth and had wrapped a cloth around his face. So Jesus told the people standing there, “Take off the strips of cloth that bind him. Allow him to go.”

45 As a result, many of the Jewish people who had come to comfort Mary and who had witnessed what Jesus had done trusted him. 46 Nevertheless, some of the people there went to the Pharisees and reported to them what Jesus had done. 47 So the ruling priests and the Pharisees gathered together the members of the highest Jewish ruling council. They were saying to each other, “What are we going to do about this man? He is performing many miraculous signs. 48 If we allow him to keep doing these miracles, everyone will trust in him and make him their king. Then the Roman army will come and destroy both our temple and our people!”

49 One member of this council was Caiaphas. He was the high priest during that year. He told them, “You people know nothing! 50 You do not realize that it would be much better for you to have one man die on behalf of the people than let the Romans kill all of the Jewish people.” 51 (Caiaphas did not say this because he thought of it himself. Rather, since he was the high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die on behalf of the Jewish people. 52 He was also prophesying that Jesus would die, not only for the Jewish people, but also in order to gather into one people all the children of God whom God has dispersed throughout the world.) 53 So in the days following the day that Caiaphas prophesied, the Jewish council made plans to kill Jesus.

54 Because of that, Jesus no longer traveled around publicly among his Jewish opponents. Instead, he left Jerusalem and went to a town called Ephraim that is in the region near the desolate area. He remained there with his disciples for a while.

55 At that time the Jewish Passover celebration was about to take place. Many people went up to Jerusalem from the region. They came before the Passover celebration began in order to clean themselves according to the Jewish rules for attending the celebration. 56 The people who came to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration were searching for Jesus. While they were standing in the temple courtyard, they asked each other, “What do you think? He will surely not come to the Passover celebration!” 57 Some time earlier the Jewish ruling priests and the Pharisees had made a command that anyone who found out where Jesus was must report his location to them so that they could arrest him.

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