The Life of Jesus

At this, they tried again to seize Him, but He escaped their grasp.

Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had first been baptizing, and He stayed there.

Many came to Him and said, “Although John never performed a sign, everything he said about this man was true.”

And many in that place believed in Jesus.

At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

(Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.)

So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”

When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

So on hearing that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two days,

and then He said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“Rabbi,” they replied, “the Jews just tried to stone You, and You are going back there?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world.

But if anyone walks at night, he will stumble, because he has no light.”

After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”

His disciples replied, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will get better.”

They thought that Jesus was talking about actual sleep, but He was speaking about the death of Lazarus.

So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,

and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Then Thomas called Didymus said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already spent four days in the tomb.

Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, a little less than two miles away,

and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them in the loss of their brother.

So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him; but Mary stayed at home.

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.