Fifth Sunday in Lent
John 11:1-45

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her
sister Martha.  Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and
wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill.  So the sisters
sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill."  But when Jesus
heard it, he said, "This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for
God's glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after
having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place
where he was.

Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again."  The
disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you,
and are you going there again?"  Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve
hours of daylight?  Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because
they see the light of this world.  But those who walk at night stumble,
because the light is not in them."  After saying this, he told them, "Our
friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him."
The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all
right."  Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they
thought that he was referring merely to sleep.  Then Jesus told them
plainly, "Lazarus is dead.  For your sake I am glad I was not there, so
that you may believe.  But let us go to him."  Thomas, who was called the
Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with
him."

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb
four days.  Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many
of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their
brother.  When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him,
while Mary stayed at home.  Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been
here, my brother would not have died.  But even now I know that God will
give you whatever you ask of him."  Jesus said to her, "Your brother will
rise again."  Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the
resurrection on the last day."  Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection
and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe
this?"  She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah,
the Son of God, the one coming into the world."

When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told
her privately, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you."  And when she
heard it, she got up quickly and went to him.  Now Jesus had not yet come
to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.  The
Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up
quickly and go out.  They followed her because they thought that she was
going to the tomb to weep there.  When Mary came where Jesus was and saw
him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died."  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews
who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and
deeply moved.  He said, "Where have you laid him?"  They said to him,
"Lord, come and see."  Jesus began to weep.  So the Jews said, "See how he
loved him!"  But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of
the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb.  It was a cave, and
a stone was lying against it.  Jesus said, "Take away the stone."  Martha,
the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench
because he has been dead four days."  Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell
you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"  So they took
away the stone.  And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you
for having heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this
for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you
sent me."  When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus,
come out!"  The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of
cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth.  Jesus said to them, "Unbind him,
and let him go."

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus
did, believed in him.