Instead of going to weep at her brother’s grave, Mary met Jesus and fell at his feet (148). “Master,” she said, “if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the people with her, his heart was touched & he was deeply moved.
“Where have you buried him?” he asked. “Come and see, Master,” they answered. Then Jesus also began weeping. “See how much he loved him!” some people said. But others were skeptical: “If he gave sight to a blind man, why couldn’t he keep Lazarus from dying?”
Still deeply moved, Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus, which was a cave with a stone placed at the entrance. “Take the stone away.” Jesus said. But Martha objected, “There will be a bad smell, Master. He’s been buried four days!” Jesus reassured her, “You will see God’s glory if you believe.” So they took the stone away.
Jesus looked up & prayed, “Thank you, Father, for hearing me. Help the people here believe that you sent me.” Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” And Lazarus walked out of the tomb!
His hands & feet were bound in grave cloths, and there was a cloth around his face. “Unbind him,” Jesus told them, “and let him go.”
After seeing what he had done, many of the people who had come to mourn with Martha & Mary began to believe in Jesus. Some of these people returned to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
So the Pharisees and the chief priests met with their ruling council. Some complained: “What do we do now? Look at all the miracles this man is performing! If we let him go on in this way, everyone will believe in him! Then our Roman rulers will be threatened to the point of destroying our whole nation!”
Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, resolved the matter: “It’s better for one man to die, than for our whole nation to be destroyed.” (Here John inserts: Without fully understanding it, Caiaphas was being used by God to prophesy that the death of Jesus would benefit the Jewish people and bring together into one body all the scattered people of God.)
From that day on, the Jewish authorities began making specific plans to kill Jesus. So for a while Jesus did not make any more public appearances in Judea. He left there & went to a place near the desert, to a town named Ephraim, where he stayed with his students.
(148) John 11:32-54