The Saints Gospel 106

The Resurrection and the Life

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Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, from the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, the one You love is ill.” When Jesus heard, He said, “This illness is not for death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was ill, He then remained two days in the place where He was. After this He said to the disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.” The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

He said these things, and after this He said to them, “Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep, but I am going to awaken him.” So the disciples said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be saved.” But Jesus had spoken of his death, while they thought He was speaking of resting in sleep. So then Jesus told them openly, “Lazarus died, and for your sake I rejoice that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Then Thomas, who was called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away. Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him, but Mary remained seated in the house. So Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. And now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will certainly never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord. I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, the One coming into the world.” Having said this, she went away and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, “The Teacher is here and calls you.”

When she heard, she rose quickly and came to Him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him. So the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her, seeing that Mary rose quickly and went out, followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” So when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her weeping, He was indignant in spirit and troubled Himself. And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “Behold, how He loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the blind man’s eyes, have made it so that this man also did not die?”

Then Jesus, again indignant within Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to Him, “Lord, he already smells, for it is his fourth day.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Jesus lifted His eyes upward and said, “Father, I thank You that You heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this because of the crowd standing around, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” Having said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

So many of the Jews who had come to Mary and beheld what He did believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus did. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What are we doing? For this man does many signs. If we leave Him like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, nor do you reckon that it benefits you for one man to die for the people, and not the whole nation to perish.” He did not say this from himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation alone, but also to gather into one the children of God who had been scattered. So from that day they planned to kill Him.

Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went away from there into the region near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and stayed there with the disciples. Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem from the countryside before the Passover to purify themselves. So they sought Jesus and said to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? Surely He will not come to the feast?” The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he should disclose it, so that they might seize Him.

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Saints Translation · The Saints Gospel · a harmony of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts 1 · words of Christ in red · working draft awaiting specialist review.