Lazarus of Bethany11:0 I take it that the events recorded in Luke 14:25-18:17, or most of the ministry in Perea, occurred between 10:42 and 11:1, here.
11Verse 1Now a certain man, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha, was sick.Verse 2(It was the Mary who [later]+anointed the Lord with myrrh and wiped His feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick.)Verse 3So the sisters sent to Him saying, “Lord, please, the one you love is sick!”
Jesus lets Lazarus die on purpose
Verse 4Upon hearing it Jesus said, “This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”Verse 5(Now Jesus loved+Martha and her sister and Lazarus.)Verse 6So, when He heard that he was sick He stayed where He was two more days!+Verse 7Then after this He says to the disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.”+Verse 8The disciples say to Him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and you are going back there?”Verse 9Jesus answered: “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks during the day he doesn't stumble, because he sees the light of this world.Verse 10But if anyone walks in the night he does stumble, because the light is not in him.”+Verse 11Having said these things He says to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going in order to awaken him.”Verse 12His disciples said to Him, “Lord, if he is sleeping he will get well.”Verse 13But Jesus had spoken of his death, while they thought He was talking about natural sleep.Verse 14So then Jesus said to them plainly: “Lazarus died.Verse 15And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”+Verse 16Then Thomas (called Twin) said to his fellow disciples, “Let's us go too, so that we may die with Him.”+Verse 17So when Jesus had come, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days.+Verse 18(Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away,Verse 19and many of the Jews had joined the women around+Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.)Verse 20Then Martha, when she heard that Jesus was coming,+went to meet Him; but Mary remained sitting at home.+
Martha
Verse 21Then Martha said to Jesus: “Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died.Verse 22But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”Verse 23Jesus says to her, “Your brother will rise again.”Verse 24Martha says to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”Verse 25Jesus said to her: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes into me, though he may die, will live;Verse 26and everyone who both lives and believes into me will never ever die.+Do you believe this?”Verse 27She says to Him, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that You are the Messiah, the Son of God, the One coming into the world.”+
Mary
Verse 28Having said these things she went and called her sister Mary, saying privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling you!”Verse 29Upon hearing it she gets up quickly and goes to Him.Verse 30(Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was in the place where Martha met Him.Verse 31Then the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, when they saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”)Verse 32Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, upon seeing Him she fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died!”+
Jesus is troubled
Verse 33So when Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.+Verse 34And He said, “Where have you put him?” They say to Him, “Lord, come and see.”Verse 35Jesus wept.+Verse 36So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”Verse 37But some of them said, “Couldn't this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have also kept this one from dying?”Verse 38Then, groaning within Himself again, Jesus arrived at the tomb. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.Verse 39Jesus says, “Remove the stone!” Martha, the sister of the deceased, says to Him, “Lord, he already stinks; it's been four days!”+Verse 40Jesus says to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”+Verse 41Then they took away the stone from where the deceased was lying. Jesus raised His eyes and said: “Father, I thank You that You heard me.+Verse 42I know that You always hear me, but I spoke for the sake of the crowd standing around, so that they may believe that You sent me.”+Verse 43Upon saying these things He shouted with a loud voice,+“Lazarus, come out!”+Verse 44And out the deceased came! Bound hand and foot with bandages,+and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus says to them, “Loose him and let him go.”+
The reaction
Verse 45So many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed into Him.Verse 46But some of them went off to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.Verse 47Then the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council+and said: “What can we do? Because this man performs many miraculous signs;Verse 48if we let him go on like this everybody will believe into him; and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation!”+Verse 49But one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them: “You know nothing at all!+Verse 50Nor do you consider that it is advantageous for us+that one man should die on behalf of the people, rather than the whole nation perish!”Verse 51(Now he did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die on behalf of the nation;+Verse 52and not only on behalf of the nation, but also to gather into one all the scattered children of God.)+Verse 53So from that day on they really plotted to kill Him.+
A tactical withdrawal
Verse 54Therefore Jesus no longer moved about openly among the Jews, but went away from there into the country near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim; and He stayed there with His disciples.+
The Passover is near
Verse 55Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many from the country went up to Jerusalem before the Passover in order to purify themselves.Verse 56So they were looking for Jesus,+and as they stood in the temple they were saying to each other, “What do you think—that he won't come to the feast at all?”Verse 57Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had together issued an edict that if anyone knew where He was he should report it, so they could arrest Him.