Montgomery - John - 11

11:1  Now a man named Lazarus was ill. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha

11:2  - it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.

11:3  So the sisters sent to him, saying. "Master, see who you hold dear is ill."

11:4  When Jesus heard it he said, "This illness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that through it the Son of God may be glorified."

11:5  Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

11:6  However, when he heard that he was ill,

11:7  he still remained where he was for two days; then after that he said to his disciples, "Let us go back again to Judea."

11:8  "Rabbi," answered his disciples, "it was but just now that the Jews were trying to stone you, and are you going there again?"

11:9  Jesus replied. "Are there not twelve hours in the daytime? If any one walks in the daytime he does not stumble, because he beholds the light of this world;

11:10  but if any one walks during the night he does stumble, because the light is not in him."

11:11  This he said, then told them, "Lazarus, our friend, has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him."

11:12  "Master, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well," replied the disciples.

11:13  Now Jesus had been speaking concerning his death, but they thought that he was talking about natural sleep.

11:14  So then he told them plainly.

11:15  "Lazarus is dead; and for your sakes I am glad I was not there, in order that you may believe. Come, let us go to him."

11:16  Upon this Thomas, who was called "The Twin," said to his fellow disciples, "Let us go too, that we may die with him."

11:17  so when Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been four days in the tomb.

11:18  Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away;

11:19  so a number of the Jews had gone to Martha and Mary to sympathize with them concerning their brother.

11:20  So when Martha learned that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained sitting in the house.

11:21  Then Martha said to Jesus. "Master, had you been here my brother would not have died;

11:22  but even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you."

11:23  Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

11:24  Martha answered, "I know that he will rise in the resurrection, at the Last Day."

11:25  "I am the resurrection and the life, "said Jesus. "He who believes in me, even if he has died, shall live.

11:26  And every one who is living and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

11:27  "Yes, Master," she answered, "I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

11:28  With these words she went away to call her sister Mary, saying privately, "The Teacher is here and is asking for you."

11:29  So when Mary heard this, she rose quickly and went to meet him.

11:30  Jesus had not yet arrived in the village, but was still at the place where Martha met him.

11:31  Then the Jews who were in the house trying to console her, when they saw that Mary rose quickly and went out, followed her, because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep there.

11:32  When Mary came to the place where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying, "Master had you been here, my brother would not have died."

11:33  Then when Jesus saw her sobbing, and the Jews likewise who accompanied her, sobbing, he shuddered with indignation in his spirit, and was deeply agitated.

11:34  "Where have you laid him?" he said. "Master, come and see," they answered.

11:35  Jesus burst into tears.

11:36  "See how he loved him," said the Jews. But some of them said,

11:37  "Could not this man, who has opened the eyes of the blind man, have prevented this man also from dying?"

11:38  Jesus therefore, again shuddering in himself with indignation, came to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone lying upon it.

11:39  "Roll away the stone," said Jesus. "Master," said Martha, the sister of the dead man "he is offensive by this time, for he has been four days in the tomb."

11:40  Jesus answered her, "Did I not tell you that if you would believe you should see the glory of God?"

11:41  Then they rolled the stone away; and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said.

11:42  "Father, I thank thee that thou hast listened to me. And I knew that thou art ever listening to me, but for the sake of the crowd who are standing about, I said it, in order that they may believe that thou hast sent me."

11:43  When he had said this he cried with a great voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"

11:44  Out came the dead man, wrapped hand and foot with grave-clothes, and his face bound up in a napkin. Jesus said to them, "Untie him, and let him go."

11:45  Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary, and had seen what he did, believed on him;

11:46  but some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

11:47  So the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

11:48  "What are we going to do?" they said, "now that this man is performing many signs?" If we leave him alone, this way, every one will believe on him, and the Romans will come and rob us of both our sacred place and of our people."

11:49  But one of their number, Caiaphas by name, who was high priest that year, said to them,

11:50  "You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, rather than the whole nation be destroyed."

11:51  now he did not say this of his own accord; but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die in behalf of the nation,

11:52  and not in behalf of the nation alone, but in order that he might gather into one the widely scattered children of God.

11:53  So from that day they plotted to kill him.

11:54  Jesus therefore no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but went away from there into the region near the desert to a town called Ephraim,

11:55  and there remained with his disciples. Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem for purification before the Passover.

11:56  So they kept looking for Jesus and saying to one another, as they stood in the Temple, "What do you think - that he will not come to the feast at all?"

11:57  Now the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that if any one knew where he was. he should give information, so that they might arrest him.