John 11:4-40

4Jesus heard the message. Then he said, ‘This illness will not finish with Lazarus's death. No, its purpose is to show how great God is. Because of this, people will see how great God's Son is.’

5Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and their brother Lazarus, too.

6He heard the news that Lazarus was ill. But then he stayed in the place where he was for two more days.

7After that, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘We should return to Judea.’

8The disciples said, ‘Teacher, only a short time ago, the Jews there tried to kill you with stones. You should not return there!’

9Jesus answered, ‘You know that there are 12 hours in the day. Anyone who walks during the day will not fall down. He will not fall down because he sees this world's light.

10But anyone who walks during the night will fall down. He will fall down because he has no light.’

11After Jesus said that, he said to them, ‘Our friend Lazarus is sleeping. But I will go there to wake him up.’

12So the disciples said to him, ‘If he is sleeping, Lord, he will get well again.’

13The disciples thought that Jesus was talking about sleep as rest. But Jesus meant that Lazarus had died.

14So then, Jesus told them clearly, ‘Lazarus is dead.

15But I am happy that I was not there with him. I am happy about that because it will help you. Now you will believe in me. We must go to him now.’

16Thomas, who was called Didymus, said to the other disciples, ‘We should go with our Teacher, so that we can die with him!’

17Jesus arrived at Bethany. He discovered that Lazarus had already been in the grave for four days.

18Bethany was about 3 kilometres from Jerusalem.

19Many Jews had come there to visit Martha and Mary. They wanted to help Martha and Mary because their brother had died.

20Martha heard the news that Jesus was coming. So she went out to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house with the visitors.

21Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

22But even now, I know that God will answer you. He will do whatever you ask him.’

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.’