The Living Bible (336 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
Do you remember Mary, who poured the costly perfume on Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair?
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Well, her brother Lazarus, who lived in Bethany with Mary and her sister Martha, was sick.
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So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Sir, your good friend is very, very sick.”
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But when Jesus heard about it he said,
“The purpose of his illness is not death, but for the glory of God. I, the Son of God, will receive glory from this situation.”
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Although Jesus was very fond of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus,
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he stayed where he was for the next two days and made no move to go to them.
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Finally, after the two days, he said to his disciples,
“Let’s go to Judea.”
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But his disciples objected. “Master,” they said, “only a few days ago the Jewish leaders in Judea were trying to kill you. Are you going there again?”
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Jesus replied,
“There are twelve hours of daylight every day, and during every hour of it a man can walk safely and not stumble.
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Only at night is there danger of a wrong step, because of the dark.”
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Then he said,
“Our friend Lazarus has gone to sleep, but now I will go and waken him!”
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The disciples, thinking Jesus meant Lazarus was having a good night’s rest, said, “That means he is getting better!” But Jesus meant Lazarus had died.
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Then he told them plainly,
“Lazarus is dead.
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And for your sake, I am glad I wasn’t there, for this will give you another opportunity to believe in me. Come, let’s go to him.”
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Thomas, nicknamed “The Twin,” said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go too—and die with him.”
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When they arrived at Bethany, they were told that Lazarus had already been in his tomb for four days.
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Bethany was only a couple of miles down the road from Jerusalem,
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and many of the Jewish leaders had come to pay their respects and to console Martha and Mary on their loss.
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When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed at home.
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Martha said to Jesus, “Sir, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.
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And even now it’s not too late, for I know that God will bring my brother back to life again, if you will only ask him to.”
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Jesus told her,
“Your brother will come back to life again.”
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“Yes,” Martha said, “when everyone else does, on Resurrection Day.”
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Jesus told her,
“I am the one who raises the dead and gives them life again. Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies like anyone else, shall live again.
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He is given eternal life for believing in me and shall never perish. Do you believe this, Martha?”
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“Yes, Master,” she told him. “I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one we have so long awaited.”
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Then she left him and returned to Mary and, calling her aside from the mourners, told her, “He is here and wants to see you.”
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So Mary went to him at once.
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Now Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him.
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When the Jewish leaders who were at the house trying to console Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’ tomb to weep; so they followed her.
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When Mary arrived where Jesus was, she fell down at his feet, saying, “Sir, if you had been here, my brother would still be alive.”
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When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jewish leaders wailing with her, he was moved with indignation and deeply troubled.
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“Where is he buried?”
he asked them.
They told him, “Come and see.”
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Tears came to Jesus’ eyes.
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“They were close friends,” the Jewish leaders said. “See how much he loved him.”
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But some said, “This fellow healed a blind man—why couldn’t he keep Lazarus from dying?”
And again Jesus was moved with deep anger. Then they came to the tomb. It was a cave with a heavy stone rolled across its door.
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“Roll the stone aside,”
Jesus told them.
But Martha, the dead man’s sister, said, “By now the smell will be terrible, for he has been dead four days.”
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“But didn’t I tell you that you will see a wonderful miracle from God if you believe?”
Jesus asked her.
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So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said,
“Father, thank you for hearing me.
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(You always hear me, of course, but I said it because of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.)”
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Then he shouted,
“Lazarus, come out!”
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And Lazarus came—bound up in the gravecloth, his face muffled in a head swath. Jesus told them,
“Unwrap him and let him go!”
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And so at last many of the Jewish leaders who were with Mary and saw it happen, finally believed on him.
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But some went away to the Pharisees and reported it to them.
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Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened a council to discuss the situation.
“What are we going to do?” they asked each other. “For this man certainly does miracles.
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If we let him alone the whole nation will follow him—and then the Roman army will come and kill us and take over the Jewish government.”
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And one of them, Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, said, “You stupid idiots—
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let this one man die for the people—why should the whole nation perish?”
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This prophecy that Jesus should die for the entire nation came from Caiaphas in his position as High Priest—he didn’t think of it by himself, but was inspired to say it.
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It was a prediction that Jesus’ death would not be for Israel only, but for all the children of God scattered around the world.
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So from that time on the Jewish leaders began plotting Jesus’ death.
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Jesus now stopped his public ministry and left Jerusalem; he went to the edge of the desert, to the village of Ephraim, and stayed there with his disciples.
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The Passover, a Jewish holy day, was near, and many country people arrived in Jerusalem several days early so that they could go through the cleansing ceremony before the Passover began.
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They wanted to see Jesus, and as they gossiped in the Temple, they asked each other, “What do you think? Will he come for the Passover?”
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Meanwhile the chief priests and Pharisees had publicly announced that anyone seeing Jesus must report him immediately so that they could arrest him.
Six days before the Passover ceremonies began, Jesus arrived in Bethany where Lazarus was—the man he had brought back to life.
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A banquet was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus sat at the table with him.
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Then Mary took a jar of costly perfume made from essence of nard, and anointed Jesus’ feet with it and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with fragrance.
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But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples—the one who would betray him—said,
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“That perfume was worth a fortune. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.”
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Not that he cared for the poor, but he was in charge of the disciples’ funds and often dipped into them for his own use!
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Jesus replied,
“Let her alone. She did it in preparation for my burial.
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You can always help the poor, but I won’t be with you very long.”
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When the ordinary people of Jerusalem heard of his arrival, they flocked to see him and also to see Lazarus—the man who had come back to life again.
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Then the chief priests decided to kill Lazarus too,
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for it was because of him that many of the Jewish leaders had deserted and believed in Jesus as their Messiah.
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The next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem swept through the city, and a huge crowd of Passover visitors
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took palm branches and went down the road to meet him, shouting, “The Savior! God bless the King of Israel! Hail to God’s Ambassador!”
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Jesus rode along on a young donkey, fulfilling the prophecy that said:
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“Don’t be afraid of your King, people of Israel, for he will come to you meekly, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
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(His disciples didn’t realize at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy; but after Jesus returned to his glory in heaven, then they noticed how many prophecies of Scripture had come true before their eyes.)
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And those in the crowd who had seen Jesus call Lazarus back to life were telling all about it.
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That was the main reason why so many went out to meet him—because they had heard about this mighty miracle.
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Then the Pharisees said to each other, “We’ve lost. Look—the whole world has gone after him!”
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Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem to attend the Passover
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paid a visit to Philip,
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who was from Bethsaida, and said, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.”
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Philip told Andrew about it, and they went together to ask Jesus.
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Jesus replied that the time had come for him to return to his glory in heaven, and that
“I must fall and die like a kernel of wheat that falls into the furrows of the earth. Unless I die I will be alone—a single seed. But my death will produce many new wheat kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.
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If you love your life down here—you will lose it. If you despise your life down here—you will exchange it for eternal glory.
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“If these Greeks
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want to be my disciples, tell them to come and follow me, for my servants must be where I am. And if they follow me, the Father will honor them.
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Now my soul is deeply troubled. Shall I pray, ‘Father, save me from what lies ahead’? But that is the very reason why I came!
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Father, bring glory and honor to your name.”
Then a voice spoke from heaven saying, “I have already done this, and I will do it again.”
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When the crowd heard the voice, some of them thought it was thunder, while others declared an angel had spoken to him.
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Then Jesus told them,
“The voice was for your benefit, not mine.
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The time of judgment for the world has come—and the time when Satan,
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the prince of this world, shall be cast out.
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And when I am lifted up on the cross,
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I will draw everyone to me.”
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He said this to indicate how he was going to die.
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“Die?” asked the crowd. “We understood that the Messiah would live forever and never die. Why are you saying he will die? What Messiah are you talking about?”
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Jesus replied,
“My light will shine out for you just a little while longer. Walk in it while you can, and go where you want to go before the darkness falls, for then it will be too late for you to find your way.
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Make use of the Light while there is still time; then you will become light bearers.”
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After saying these things, Jesus went away and was hidden from them.
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But despite all the miracles he had done, most of the people would not believe he was the Messiah.
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This is exactly what Isaiah the prophet had predicted: “Lord, who will believe us? Who will accept God’s mighty miracles as proof?”
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But they couldn’t believe, for as Isaiah also said:
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“God
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has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so that they can neither see nor understand nor turn to me to heal them.”
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Isaiah was referring to Jesus when he made this prediction, for he had seen a vision of the Messiah’s glory.
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However, even many of the Jewish leaders believed him to be the Messiah but wouldn’t admit it to anyone because of their fear that the Pharisees would excommunicate them from the synagogue;
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for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
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Jesus shouted to the crowds,
“If you trust me, you are really trusting God.
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For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me.
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I have come as a Light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer wander in the darkness.
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If anyone hears me and doesn’t obey me, I am not his judge—for I have come to save the world and not to judge it.
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But all who reject me and my message will be judged at the Day of Judgment by the truths I have spoken.
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For these are not my own ideas, but I have told you what the Father said to tell you.
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And I know his instructions lead to eternal life; so whatever he tells me to say, I say!”