011:013 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought He referred
to the rest taken in ordinary sleep.
011:014 So then He told them plainly,
011:015 "Lazarus is dead; and for your sakes I am glad I was not there,
in order that you may believe. But let us go to him."
011:016 "Let us go also," Thomas, the Twin, said to his fellow disciples,
"that we may die with him."
011:017 On His arrival Jesus found that Lazarus had already been
three days in the tomb.
011:018 Bethany was near Jerusalem, the distance being a little less
than two miles;
011:019 and a considerable number of the Jews were with Martha and Mary,
having come to express sympathy with them on the death
of their brother.
011:020 Martha, however, as soon as she heard the tidings, "Jesus is coming,"
went to meet Him; but Mary remained sitting in the house.
011:021 So Martha came and spoke to Jesus. "Master, if you had been here,"
she said, "my brother would not have died.
011:022 And even now I know that whatever you ask God for,
God will give you."
011:023 "Your brother shall rise again," replied Jesus.
011:024 "I know," said Martha, "that he will rise again at the resurrection,
on the last day."
011:025 "I am the Resurrection and the Life," said Jesus; "he who believes
in me, even if he has died, he shall live;
011:026 and every one who is living and is a believer in me shall never,
never die. Do you believe this?"
011:027 "Yes, Master," she replied; "I thoroughly believe that you are
the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
011:028 After saying this, she went and called her sister Mary privately,
telling her, "The Rabbi is here and is asking for you."
011:029 So she, on hearing that, rose up quickly to go to Him.
011:030 Now Jesus was not yet come into the village, but was still
at the place where Martha had met Him.
011:031 So the Jews who were with Mary in the house sympathizing with her,
when they saw that she had risen hastily and had gone out,
followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb
to weep aloud there.
011:032 Mary then, when she came to Jesus and saw Him, fell at His
feet and exclaimed, "Master, if you had been here, my brother
would not have died."
011:033 Seeing her weeping aloud, and the Jews in like manner weeping
who had come with her, Jesus, curbing the strong emotion
of His spirit,
011:034 though deeply troubled, asked them, "Where have you laid him?"
"Master, come and see," was their reply.
011:035 Jesus wept.
011:036 "See how dear he held him," said the Jews.
011:037 But others of them asked, "Was this man who opened the blind
man's eyes unable to prevent this man from dying?"
011:038 Jesus, however, again restraining His strong feeling,
came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone had been laid
against the mouth of it.
011:039 "Take away the stone," said Jesus. Martha, the sister of the
dead man, exclaimed, "Master, by this time there is a foul smell;
for it is three days since he died."
011:040 "Did I not promise you," replied Jesus, "that if you believe,
you shall see the glory of God?"
011:041 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes
and said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me.
011:042 I know that Thou always hearest me; but for the sake of the crowd
standing round I have said this--that they may believe
that Thou didst send me."
011:043 After speaking thus, He called out in a loud voice,
"Lazarus, come out."
011:044 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped in cloths,
and his face wrapped round with a towel. "Untie him,"
said Jesus, "and let him go free."
011:045 Thereupon a considerable number of the Jews--namely those
who had come to Mary and had witnessed His deeds--
became believers in Him;
011:046 though some of them went off to the Pharisees and told them
what He had done.
011:047 Therefore the High Priests and the Pharisees held a meeting of
the Sanhedrin. "What steps are we taking?" they asked one another;
"for this man is performing a great number of miracles.
011:048 If we leave him alone in this way, everybody will believe
in him, and the Romans will come and blot out both our city
and our nation."
011:049 But one of them, named Caiaphas, being High Priest that year,
said, "You know nothing about it.
011:050 You do not reflect that it is to your interest that one man
should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish."
011:051 It was not as a mere man that he thus spoke. But being
High Priest that year he was inspired to declare that Jesus
was to die for the nation,
011:052 and not for the nation only, but in order to unite into one
body all the far-scattered children of God.
011:053 So from that day forward they planned and schemed in order
to put Him to death.
011:054 Therefore Jesus no longer went about openly among the Jews,
but He left that neighbourhood and went into the district
near the Desert, to a town called Ephraim, and remained there
with the disciples.
011:055 The Jewish Passover was coming near, and many from that district
went up to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves.
011:056 They therefore looked out for Jesus, and asked one another
as they stood in the Temple, "What do you think?--will he come
to the Festival at all?"
011:057 Now the High Priests and the Pharisees had issued orders
that if any one knew where He was, he should give information,
so that they might arrest Him.
012:001 Jesus, however, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was whom He had raised from the dead.
012:002 So they gave a dinner there in honour of Jesus, at which
Martha waited at table, but Lazarus was one of the guests
who were with Him.
012:003 Availing herself of the opportunity, Mary took a pound weight
of pure spikenard, very costly, and poured it over His feet,
and wiped His feet with her hair, so that the house was filled
with the fragrance of the perfume.
012:004 Then said Judas (the Iscariot, one of the Twelve--the one
who afterwards betrayed Jesus),
012:005 "Why was not that perfume sold for 300 shillings and the money
given to the poor?"
012:006 The reason he said this was not that he cared for the poor,
but that he was a thief, and that being in charge of the money-box,
he used to steal what was put into it.
012:007 But Jesus interposed. "Do not blame her," He said, "allow her
to have kept it for the time of my preparation for burial.