Thematic Bible: The raising of lazarus


Thematic Bible



Now a man named Lazarus was sick; he lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who poured perfume upon the Master and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So the sisters sent this message to Jesus: "Master, your friend is sick."

Now Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, and a number of Jews had come out to see Mary and Martha, to condole with them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went out to meet him, but Mary remained at home. read more.
Martha said to Jesus, "Master, if you had been here, my brother would not have died! Even now I know that anything you ask God for, he will give you." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise at the resurrection, on the Last Day." Jesus said to her, "I myself am Resurrection and Life. He who believes in me will live on, even if he dies, and no one who is alive and believes in me will ever die. Do you believe that?" She said to him, "Yes, Master, I do indeed believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world." With these words she went and called her sister Mary, whispering to her, "Here is the Master, asking for you." When she heard it she sprang up and went to him, for Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were sitting with her in the house, condoling with her, when they saw Mary spring up and go out, supposed that she was going to weep at the tomb, and followed her. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, and said, "Master, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!" When Jesus saw her weep and the Jews who had come with her weeping too, repressing a groan, and yet showing great agitation, he said, "Where have you laid him?" They answered, "Come and see, Master." Jesus shed tears. So the Jews said, "See how much he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of that blind man, have kept Lazarus from dying?" Again repressing a groan, Jesus went to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid against the mouth of it. Jesus said, "Move the stone away." The dead man's sister, Martha, said to him, "Master, by this time he is decaying, for he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Have I not promised you that if you will believe in me you will see the glory of God?" So they moved the stone away. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for listening to me, though I knew that you always listen to me. But I have said this for the sake of the people that are standing around me that they may believe that you have made me your messenger." After saying this he called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and with his face muffled with a handkerchief. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him and let him move." So it came about that many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and saw what Jesus did, came to believe in him, but some of them went back to the Pharisees and told them what he had done.