Jesus Raises Lazarus

A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. The sisters sent word to Jesus: 'Lord, the one you love is sick.'

When Jesus heard this, He said, 'This sickness will not end in death. It is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it.' Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when He heard Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was two more days.

Then He said to His disciples, 'Let us go back to Judea. Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; I am going there to wake him up.'

The disciples misunderstood. 'Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.'

Jesus told them plainly, 'Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.'

When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Martha came out to meet Him. 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.'

Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.'

'I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day,' Martha answered.

Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?'

'Yes, Lord,' she replied. 'I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God.'

Mary came out next, weeping. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

'Where have you laid him?' He asked.

'Come and see, Lord,' they replied.

Jesus wept.

The people said, 'See how He loved him!'

Jesus came to the tomb, a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 'Take away the stone,' He said.

'But, Lord,' Martha protested, 'by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.'

Jesus said, 'Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?'

They took away the stone. Jesus looked up and prayed, 'Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.'

Then Jesus called in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!'

The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, 'Take off the grave clothes and let him go.'

The One who is the resurrection and the life stood at a tomb and summoned a dead man back to living. Lazarus walked out. Many of the Jews who had seen what Jesus did believed in Him. The greatest sign yet pointed to an even greater resurrection to come.