John 11:23-57

23Jesus told her, ‘Your brother will rise and become alive again.’

24Martha replied, ‘I know that he will rise on the last day, to become alive again.’

25Jesus said to her, ‘I have authority over death. I raise dead people, and I give people true life. Anyone who believes in me will live. Even if that person dies, he will continue to live.

26People who believe in me while they are alive will never die. Do you believe that?’

27Martha answered, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah. You are God's Son, the one that God promised to send into the world.’

28After this, Martha went back to the house. She took Mary to speak to her on her own. Martha said to her, ‘The Teacher is here, and he is asking to meet you.’

29When Mary heard this, she got up immediately. She went out to meet Jesus.

30Jesus had not arrived in the village yet. He was still in the place where Martha had met him.

31There were still Jews in the house who were with Mary to help her. They saw her get up quickly and go out. So they followed her. They thought that she was going to the place where they had put Lazarus's dead body. They thought that she wanted to go there to weep.

32Mary arrived at the place where Jesus was. When she saw Jesus, she bent down low at his feet. She said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

33Jesus saw that Mary was weeping. He saw that the Jews who had come with her were weeping too. When Jesus saw them, he felt very sad in his spirit. He was upset about Lazarus's death.

34He asked them, ‘Where have you put his dead body?’ They answered, ‘Come and see, Lord.’

35Jesus wept.

36Then the Jews said to each other, ‘See how much he loved Lazarus!’

37But some of them said, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man. So surely he would have been able to stop the death of Lazarus.’

38Jesus arrived at the grave where they had put Lazarus's dead body. It was a cave. A large stone covered the front of the hole. Again, Jesus felt very upset.

39He said, ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha, the dead man's sister, said to Jesus, ‘But Lord, by now his dead body will have a bad smell. He has been dead for four days!’

40Jesus said to her, ‘I told you already that you must believe in me. Then you will see how great and how powerful God is.’

41So they moved the stone away. Jesus looked up towards the sky. He said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have listened to me.

42I know that you listen to me always. But I said this to help all the people who are standing here. I want them to believe that you sent me.’

43When Jesus had said this, he shouted with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’

44The dead man came out. There were pieces of cloth round his hands and round his feet. Another piece of cloth was round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Undo the cloths and let him go.’

45The Jews who had come to visit Mary saw this. They saw what Jesus did. So many of them believed in him.

46But some of them went to the Pharisees. They told the Pharisees what Jesus had done.

47Then the Pharisees and the leaders of the priests had a meeting with the group of Jewish leaders. They asked each other, ‘What will we do? This man is doing so many miracles.

48If we let him do more things like this, everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman rulers will come and punish us. Their soldiers will destroy our temple and even destroy our whole country of Israel.’

49One of the group was the leader of the priests that year. He was called Caiaphas. He said, ‘You do not understand the problem.

50It is better that one man should die on behalf of our people. That is better than if all Israel's people should die.’

51Caiaphas did not say this because he had thought it by himself. No, he was speaking as a prophet, because he was the leader of the priests that year. That is why he said that Jesus would die on behalf of Israel's people.

52And Jesus would die not only for Israel's people. He would also die for all God's people who lived in many different places. He would bring them all together. They would become like one big family.

53From that day, the Jewish leaders decided together how they could kill Jesus.

54So Jesus stopped travelling about in Judea where everyone could see him. Instead, he went away from there to a town called Ephraim that was near to the wilderness. He stayed there with his disciples.

55It was almost time for the Jewish Passover Festival to begin. Many people were going from their country places to Jerusalem. They were going there to make themselves clean in front of God before they went to the festival.

56They were continuing to look for Jesus. While they stood in the yard of the temple, they spoke to each other about him. They asked each other, ‘Do you think that he will come to the festival or not?’

57The leaders of the priests and the Pharisees had spoken to the people about Jesus. They had told them, ‘If anyone knows where Jesus is, you must tell us.’ So then they could take hold of him to put him in a prison.