432-433 : Lazarus Is Raised From The Dead
ON another occasion Lazarus, the brother of Mary, was sick.
So his sisters sent word to Jesus, saying, "Lord, he whom you love is sick."
For Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
When he heard therefore that he was sick, he stayed two days more in the place where he was.
After that he said to his disciples,
"Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep."
Then his disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps, he shall be well."
Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead.
And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, in order that you may believe.
Nevertheless, let us go to him."
Then Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let
us go also, that we may die with him."
When Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had lain in the grave four days already.
And since Bethany was close to Jerusalem, about two miles away,
many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.
Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him,
but Mary sat still in the house.
Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
But I know that even now whatever you will ask of God, God will give it to you."
"Your brother shall rise again," said Jesus.
And Martha said, "I know that he shall surely rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection, and the life.
He that believes in me, though he is dead, shall live.
And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
which was to come into the world."
And when she had so spoken she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying,
"The Master has come, and calls for you."
As soon as Mary heard that, she arose quickly and came to him.
Now Jesus was not yet in the town, but was in that place where Martha met him.
The Jews then who had seen her in the house, and had comforted her,
when they saw Mary rise up hastily and go out, followed her, saying,
"She goes to the grave to weep there."
When Mary had come to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him,
"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
When Jesus saw her weeping, and also the Jews weeping that came with her,
He groaned in the spirit and was troubled, and said, "Where have you laid him?"
They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept, and the Jews said,
"Behold how much he loved him!"
And some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind,
have caused that Lazarus should not have died?"
Jesus therefore groaning again within himself came to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone."
Then Martha said, "Lord, by this time he is decaying, for he has been dead four days."
But Jesus said to her,
"Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?"
They took away the stone from the grave,
and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me.
And I know that you hear me always, but because of the people who stand here,
I said it, that they might believe that you have sent me."
And when he had thus spoken, he cried in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth."
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes,
and his face was bound about with a napkin.
Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."
Then many of the people who had come with Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did,
believed in him.
But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done.
JESUS' ENEMIES PLOT TO KILL HIM
Then the chief priests and the Pharisees held a council, and said, "What are we to do?
This man does many miracles.
If we let him alone, all men will believe in him,
and the Romans shall come and take away both our holy place and our nation."
One of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that year, said to them,
"You know nothing and do not realize that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish."
This was not his own opinion, but being high priest that year,
he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation.
And not for the nation only,
but also that he should gather together the children of God that were scattered abroad.
From that day forth, they planned together how to put him to death.
Jesus therefore walked no longer openly among the Jews,
but went into a country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim,
and there continued with his disciples.
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