day 11
Closer to Jesus
Closer to Jesus
The death of Lazarus
1 Now a man named Lazarus was ill. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay ill, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.)
3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is ill.’
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, ‘This illness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.’
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6 So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed where he was two more days,
7 and then he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go back to Judea.’
8 ‘But Rabbi,’ they said, ‘a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?’
9 Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the day-time will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light.
10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.’
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.’
12 His disciples replied, ‘Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.’
13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead,
15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’
Jesus comforts the sisters of Lazarus
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem,
19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.
20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 ‘Lord,’ Martha said to Jesus, ‘if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.’
23 Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’
24 Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’
25 Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;
26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?’
27 ‘Yes, Lord,’ she replied, ‘I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.’
28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. ‘The Teacher is here,’ she said, ‘and is asking for you.’
29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.
30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.
31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
34 ‘Where have you laid him?’ he asked. ‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’
37 But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’
Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
39 ‘Take away the stone,’ he said. ‘But, Lord,’ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.’
40 Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
42 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.’
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’
44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.’
The plot to kill Jesus
45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. ‘What are we accomplishing?’ they asked. ‘Here is this man performing many signs.
48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.’
49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, ‘You know nothing at all!
50 You do not realise that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.’
51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation,
52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.
53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
54 Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.
55 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover.
56 They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, ‘What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?’
57 But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.
Besides the apostles, who were very close and dear to Jesus, he had other three intimate friends – two sisters and a brother. Several times in this chapter we read that Jesus loved Martha, her sister Mary, and Lazarus. They loved Jesus too, opening their home to Him and His disciples, often feeding them, and providing a place to rest.
When Lazarus became sick, Mary and Martha sent a word to Jesus. Affliction entered their family and Jesus knew about that, yet He chose not to interfere. In a couple of days, Lazarus died. Only then did Jesus take His disciples to Lazarus' house, where Mary and Martha were already mourning their brother for four days.
As He approached Bethany Martha heard He was coming and went out to meet Him. “If You had been here my brother would not have died.” Mary had the same reproach. Jesus knew He would hear this and He knew what He was going to do. Because Jesus was the Resurrection and Life, He would literally raise Martha and Mary’s brother from the dead. But the sisters couldn’t even think of that. They were weeping.
It is written that when Jesus saw Mary weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled. The Greek word embrimáomai is often rendered as “moved”, but, in reality, the emotion described in this chapter is indignation and rage. The New Living Translation says: ”A deep anger welled up within Him” (11:33) and “Jesus was still angry as He arrived at the tomb” (11:38). Jesus was indignant over all the pain, grief, suffering, sorrow, unbelief, death and the curse of sin. He commanded Lazarus to come out of the tomb and Lazarus was resurrected back to life. It was only a glimpse of God’s plan for all His children through His Son’s sacrifice on the cross. Eternal Forever Life.
Read again verses 17-44. Ask Jesus: “What do You have in Your Word for me today?” Listen and pray.
📖 INTERCESSION
"The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed... Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches."
Matthew 13:31-32
🙏 PRAYER
Pray for the deliverance of people from the Kingdom of Darkness.
Pray for the destruction of the kingdom of darkness.
Pray for the advancement of God's Kingdom.
Pray for God's Kingdom to come first in your personal life and family.