2020-03 Lectionary Slides
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SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2020
SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2020
15 Then the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it.
16 He said to him, “You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden,
17 except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.”
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1 Now the snake was the most cunning animal that the Lord God had made. The snake asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”
2 “We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden,” the woman answered,
3 “except the tree in the middle of it. God told us not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it; if we do, we will die.”
4 The snake replied, “That’s not true; you will not die.
5 God said that, because he knows that when you eat it you will be like God and know what is good and what is bad.”
6 The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he also ate it.
7 As soon as they had eaten it, they were given understanding and realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and covered themselves.
1 Happy are those whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs are pardoned.
2 Happy is the one whom the Lord does not accuse of doing wrong and who is free from all deceit.
3 When I did not confess my sins, I was worn out from crying all day long.
4 Day and night you punished me, Lord; my strength was completely drained, as moisture is dried up by the summer heat.
5 Then I confessed my sins to you; I did not conceal my wrongdoings. I decided to confess them to you, and you forgave all my sins.
6 So all your loyal people should pray to you in times of need; when a great flood of trouble comes rushing in, it will not reach them.
7 You are my hiding place; you will save me from trouble. I sing aloud of your salvation, because you protect me.
8 The Lord says, “I will teach you the way you should go; I will instruct you and advise you.
9 Don’t be stupid like a horse or a mule, which must be controlled with a bit and bridle to make it submit.”
10 The wicked will have to suffer, but those who trust in the Lord are protected by his constant love.
11 You that are righteous, be glad and rejoice because of what the Lord has done. You that obey him, shout for joy!
12 Sin came into the world through one man, and his sin brought death with it. As a result, death has spread to the whole human race because everyone has sinned.
13 There was sin in the world before the Law was given; but where there is no law, no account is kept of sins.
14 But from the time of Adam to the time of Moses death ruled over the whole human race, even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam did when he disobeyed God’s command. Adam was a figure of the one who was to come.
15 But the two are not the same, because God’s free gift is not like Adam’s sin. It is true that many people died because of the sin of that one man. But God’s grace is much greater, and so is his free gift to so many people through the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ.
16 And there is a difference between God’s gift and the sin of one man. After the one sin, came the judgement of “Guilty”; but after so many sins, comes the undeserved gift of “Not guilty!”
17 It is true that through the sin of one man death began to rule because of that one man. But how much greater is the result of what was done by the one man, Jesus Christ! All who receive God’s abundant grace and are freely put right with him will rule in life through Christ.
18 So then, as the one sin condemned all people, in the same way the one righteous act sets all people free and gives them life.
19 And just as the mass of people were made sinners as the result of the disobedience of one man, in the same way the mass of people will all be put right with God as the result of the obedience of the one man.
1 Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Devil.
2 After spending 40 days and nights without food, Jesus was hungry.
3 Then the Devil came to him and said, “If you are God’s Son, order these stones to turn into bread.”
4 But Jesus answered, “The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.’ ”
5 Then the Devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, the Holy City, set him on the highest point of the Temple,
6 and said to him, “If you are God’s Son, throw yourself down, for the scripture says: ‘God will give orders to his angels about you; they will hold you up with their hands, so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones.’ ”
7 Jesus answered, “But the scripture also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
8 Then the Devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all their greatness.
9 “All this I will give you,” the Devil said, “if you kneel down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus answered, “Go away, Satan! The scripture says, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’ ”
11 Then the Devil left Jesus; and angels came and helped him.
SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 2020
SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 2020
1 The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s home, and go to a land that I am going to show you.
2 I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, But I will curse those who curse you. And through you I will bless all the nations.”
4 When Abram was 75 years old, he started out from Haran, as the Lord had told him to do; and Lot went with him.
1 I look to the mountains; where will my help come from?
2 My help will come from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let you fall; your protector is always awake.
4 The protector of Israel never dozes or sleeps.
5 The Lord will guard you; he is by your side to protect you.
6 The sun will not hurt you during the day, nor the moon during the night.
7 The Lord will protect you from all danger; he will keep you safe.
8 He will protect you as you come and go now and for ever.
1 What shall we say, then, of Abraham, the father of our race? What was his experience?
2 If he was put right with God by the things he did, he would have something to boast about—but not in God’s sight.
3 The scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous.”
4 Those who work are paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned.
5 But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself.
13 When God promised Abraham and his descendants that the world would belong to him, he did so, not because Abraham obeyed the Law, but because he believed and was accepted as righteous by God.
14 For if what God promises is to be given to those who obey the Law, then faith means nothing and God’s promise is worthless.
15 The Law brings down God’s anger; but where there is no law, there is no disobeying of the law.
16 And so the promise was based on faith, in order that the promise should be guaranteed as God’s free gift to all of Abraham’s descendants—not just to those who obey the Law, but also to those who believe as Abraham did. For Abraham is the spiritual father of us all;
17 as the scripture says, “I have made you father of many nations.” So the promise is good in the sight of God, in whom Abraham believed—the God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist.
1 There was a Jewish leader named Nicodemus, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees.
2 One night he went to Jesus and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God. No one could perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him.”
3 Jesus answered, “I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.”
4 “How can a grown man be born again?” Nicodemus asked. “He certainly cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time!”
5 “I am telling you the truth,” replied Jesus. “No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.
6 A person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit.
7 Do not be surprised because I tell you that you must all be born again.
8 The wind blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” asked Nicodemus.
10 Jesus answered, “You are a great teacher in Israel, and you don’t know this?
11 I am telling you the truth: we speak of what we know and report what we have seen, yet none of you is willing to accept our message.
12 You do not believe me when I tell you about the things of this world; how will you ever believe me, then, when I tell you about the things of heaven?
13 And no one has ever gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from heaven.”
14 As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the desert, in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up,
15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its saviour.
SUNDAY, MARCH 15, 2020
SUNDAY, MARCH 15, 2020
1 The whole Israelite community left the desert of Sin, moving from one place to another at the command of the Lord. They made camp at Rephidim, but there was no water there to drink.
2 They complained to Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses answered, “Why are you complaining? Why are you putting the Lord to the test?”
3 But the people were very thirsty and continued to complain to Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? To kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
4 Moses prayed earnestly to the Lord and said, “What can I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
5 The Lord said to Moses, “Take some of the leaders of Israel with you, and go on ahead of the people. Take along the stick with which you struck the Nile.
6 I will stand before you on a rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” Moses did so in the presence of the leaders of Israel.
7 The place was named Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites complained and put the Lord to the test when they asked, “Is the Lord with us or not?”
1 Come, let us praise the Lord! Let us sing for joy to God, who protects us!
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and sing joyful songs of praise.
3 For the Lord is a mighty God, a mighty king over all the gods.
4 He rules over the whole earth, from the deepest caves to the highest hills.
5 He rules over the sea, which he made; the land also, which he himself formed.
6 Come, let us bow down and worship him; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 He is our God; we are the people he cares for, the flock for which he provides. Listen today to what he says:
8 “Don’t be stubborn, as your ancestors were at Meribah, as they were that day in the desert at Massah.
9 There they put me to the test and tried me, although they had seen what I did for them.
10 For forty years I was disgusted with those people. I said, ‘How disloyal they are! They refuse to obey my commands.’
11 I was angry and made a solemn promise: ‘You will never enter the land where I would have given you rest.’ ”
1 Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 He has brought us by faith into this experience of God’s grace, in which we now live. And so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God’s glory!
3 We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance,
4 endurance brings God’s approval, and his approval creates hope.
5 This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit, who is God’s gift to us.
6 For when we were still helpless, Christ died for the wicked at the time that God chose.
7 It is a difficult thing for someone to die for a righteous person. It may even be that someone might dare to die for a good person.
8 But God has shown us how much he loves us—it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!
9 By his blood we are now put right with God; how much more, then, will we be saved by him from God’s anger!
10 We were God’s enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life!
11 But that is not all; we rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has now made us God’s friends.
5 In Samaria he came to a town named Sychar, which was not far from the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw some water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink of water.”
8 (His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)
9 The woman answered, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan—so how can you ask me for a drink?” (Jews will not use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans use.)
10 Jesus answered, “If only you knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you life-giving water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you haven’t got a bucket, and the well is deep. Where would you get that life-giving water?
12 It was our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well; he and his sons and his flocks all drank from it. You don’t claim to be greater than Jacob, do you?”
13 Jesus answered, “All those who drink this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring which will provide him with life-giving water and give him eternal life.”
15 “Sir,” the woman said, “give me that water! Then I will never be thirsty again, nor will I have to come here to draw water.”
16 “Go and call your husband,” Jesus told her, “and come back.”
17 “I haven’t got a husband,” she answered. Jesus replied, “You are right when you say you haven’t got a husband.
18 You have been married to five men, and the man you live with now is not really your husband. You have told me the truth.”
19 “I see you are a prophet, sir,” the woman said.
20 “My Samaritan ancestors worshipped God on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where we should worship God.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem.
22 You Samaritans do not really know whom you worship; but we Jews know whom we worship, because it is from the Jews that salvation comes.
23 But the time is coming and is already here, when by the power of God’s Spirit people will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship that he wants.
24 God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah will come, and when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
26 Jesus answered, “I am he, I who am talking with you.”
27 At that moment Jesus’ disciples returned, and they were greatly surprised to find him talking with a woman. But none of them said to her, “What do you want?” or asked him, “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then the woman left her water jar, went back to the town, and said to the people there,
29 “Come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done. Could he be the Messiah?”
30 So they left the town and went to Jesus.
31 In the meantime the disciples were begging Jesus, “Teacher, have something to eat!”
32 But he answered, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 So the disciples started asking among themselves, “Could somebody have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” Jesus said to them, “is to obey the will of the one who sent me and to finish the work he gave me to do.
35 You have a saying, ‘Four more months and then the harvest.’ But I tell you, take a good look at the fields; the crops are now ripe and ready to be harvested!
36 The one who reaps the harvest is being paid and gathers the crops for eternal life; so another who sows and the one who reaps will be glad together.
37 The saying is true, ‘One sows, another reaps.’
38 I have sent you to reap a harvest in a field where you did not work; others worked there, and you profit from their work.”
39 Many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I have ever done.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days.
41 Many more believed because of his message,
42 and they said to the woman, “We believe now, not because of what you said, but because we ourselves have heard him, and we know that he really is the Saviour of the world.”
SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 2020
SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 2020
1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you go on grieving over Saul? I have rejected him as king of Israel. But now get some olive oil and go to Bethlehem, to a man named Jesse, because I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”
2 “How can I do that?” Samuel asked. “If Saul hears about it, he will kill me!” The Lord answered, “Take a calf with you and say that you are there to offer a sacrifice to the Lord.
3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will tell you what to do. You will anoint as king the man I tell you to.”
4 Samuel did what the Lord told him to do and went to Bethlehem, where the city leaders came trembling to meet him and asked, “Is this a peaceful visit, seer?”
5 “Yes,” he answered. “I have come to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. Purify yourselves and come with me.” He also told Jesse and his sons to purify themselves, and he invited them to the sacrifice.
6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Jesse’s son Eliab and said to himself, “This man standing here in the Lord’s presence is surely the one he has chosen.”
7 But the Lord said to him, “Pay no attention to how tall and handsome he is. I have rejected him, because I do not judge as people judge. They look at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart.”
8 Then Jesse called his son Abinadab and brought him to Samuel. But Samuel said, “No, the Lord hasn’t chosen him either.”
9 Jesse then brought Shammah. “No, the Lord hasn’t chosen him either,” Samuel said.
10 In this way Jesse brought seven of his sons to Samuel. And Samuel said to him, “No, the Lord hasn’t chosen any of these.”
11 Then he asked him, “Have you any more sons?” Jesse answered, “There is still the youngest, but he is out taking care of the sheep.” “Tell him to come here,” Samuel said. “We won’t offer the sacrifice until he comes.”
12 So Jesse sent for him. He was a handsome, healthy young man, and his eyes sparkled. The Lord said to Samuel, “This is the one—anoint him!”
13 Samuel took the olive oil and anointed David in front of his brothers. Immediately the spirit of the Lord took control of David and was with him from that day on. Then Samuel returned to Ramah.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need.
2 He lets me rest in fields of green grass and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water.
3 He gives me new strength. He guides me in the right paths, as he has promised.
4 Even if I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be afraid, Lord, for you are with me. Your shepherd’s rod and staff protect me.
5 You prepare a banquet for me, where all my enemies can see me; you welcome me as an honoured guest and fill my cup to the brim.
6 I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life; and your house will be my home as long as I live.
8 You yourselves used to be in the darkness, but since you have become the Lord’s people, you are in the light. So you must live like people who belong to the light,
9 for it is the light that brings a rich harvest of every kind of goodness, righteousness, and truth.
10 Try to learn what pleases the Lord.
11 Have nothing to do with the worthless things that people do, things that belong to the darkness. Instead, bring them out to the light.
12 (It is really too shameful even to talk about the things they do in secret.)
13 And when all things are brought out to the light, then their true nature is clearly revealed;
14 for anything that is clearly revealed becomes light. That is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, and rise from death, and Christ will shine on you.”
1 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born blind.
2 His disciples asked him, “Teacher, whose sin caused him to be born blind? Was it his own or his parents’ sin?”
3 Jesus answered, “His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents’ sins. He is blind so that God’s power might be seen at work in him.
4 As long as it is day, we must keep on doing the work of him who sent me; night is coming when no one can work.
5 While I am in the world, I am the light for the world.”
6 After he said this, Jesus spat on the ground and made some mud with the spittle; he rubbed the mud on the man’s eyes
7 and said, “Go and wash your face in the Pool of Siloam.” (This name means “Sent”.) So the man went, washed his face, and came back seeing.
8 His neighbours, then, and the people who had seen him begging before this, asked, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”
9 Some said, “He is the one,” but others said, “No he isn’t; he just looks like him.” So the man himself said, “I am the man.”
10 “How is it that you can now see?” they asked him.
11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made some mud, rubbed it on my eyes, and told me to go to Siloam and wash my face. So I went, and as soon as I washed, I could see.”
12 “Where is he?” they asked. “I don’t know,” he answered.
13 Then they took to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.
14 The day that Jesus made the mud and cured him of his blindness was a Sabbath.
15 The Pharisees, then, asked the man again how he had received his sight. He told them, “He put some mud on my eyes; I washed my face, and now I can see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “The man who did this cannot be from God, for he does not obey the Sabbath law.” Others, however, said, “How could a man who is a sinner perform such miracles as these?” And there was a division among them.
17 So the Pharisees asked the man once more, “You say he cured you of your blindness—well, what do you say about him?” “He is a prophet,” the man answered.
18 The Jewish authorities, however, were not willing to believe that he had been blind and could now see, until they called his parents
19 and asked them, “Is this your son? You say that he was born blind; how is it, then, that he can now see?”
20 His parents answered, “We know that he is our son, and we know that he was born blind.
21 But we do not know how it is that he is now able to see, nor do we know who cured him of his blindness. Ask him; he is old enough, and he can answer for himself!”
22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, who had already agreed that anyone who said he believed that Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue.
23 That is why his parents said, “He is old enough; ask him!”
24 A second time they called back the man who had been born blind, and said to him, “Promise before God that you will tell the truth! We know that this man who cured you is a sinner.”
25 “I do not know if he is a sinner or not,” the man replied. “One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I see.”
26 “What did he do to you?” they asked. “How did he cure you of your blindness?”
27 “I have already told you,” he answered, “and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Maybe you, too, would like to be his disciples?”
28 They cursed him and said, “You are that fellow’s disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples.
29 We know that God spoke to Moses; as for that fellow, however, we do not even know where he comes from!”
30 The man answered, “What a strange thing that is! You do not know where he comes from, but he cured me of my blindness!
31 We know that God does not listen to sinners; he does listen to people who respect him and do what he wants them to do.
32 Since the beginning of the world nobody has ever heard of anyone giving sight to a person born blind.
33 Unless this man came from God, he would not be able to do a thing.”
34 They answered, “You were born and brought up in sin—and you are trying to teach us?” And they expelled him from the synagogue.
35 When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 The man answered, “Tell me who he is, sir, so that I can believe in him!”
37 Jesus said to him, “You have already seen him, and he is the one who is talking with you now.”
38 “I believe, Lord!” the man said, and knelt down before Jesus.
39 Jesus said, “I came to this world to judge, so that the blind should see and those who see should become blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were there with him heard him say this and asked him, “Surely you don’t mean that we are blind, too?”
41 Jesus answered, “If you were blind, then you would not be guilty; but since you claim that you can see, this means that you are still guilty.”
SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2020
SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2020
1 I felt the powerful presence of the Lord, and his spirit took me and set me down in a valley where the ground was covered with bones.
2 He led me all round the valley, and I could see that there were very many bones and that they were very dry.
3 He said to me, “Mortal man, can these bones come back to life?” I replied, “Sovereign Lord, only you can answer that!”
4 He said, “Prophesy to the bones. Tell these dry bones to listen to the word of the Lord.
5 Tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to them: I am going to put breath into you and bring you back to life.
6 I will give you sinews and muscles, and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you and bring you back to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
7 So I prophesied as I had been told. While I was speaking, I heard a rattling noise, and the bones began to join together.
8 While I watched, the bones were covered with sinews and muscles, and then with skin. But there was no breath in the bodies.
9 God said to me, “Mortal man, prophesy to the wind. Tell the wind that the Sovereign Lord commands it to come from every direction, to breathe into these dead bodies, and to bring them back to life.”
10 So I prophesied as I had been told. Breath entered the bodies, and they came to life and stood up. There were enough of them to form an army.
11 God said to me, “Mortal man, the people of Israel are like these bones. They say that they are dried up, without any hope and with no future.
12 So prophesy to my people Israel and tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, am going to open their graves. I am going to take them out and bring them back to the land of Israel.
13 When I open the graves where my people are buried and bring them out, they will know that I am the Lord.
14 I will put my breath in them, bring them back to life, and let them live in their own land. Then they will know that I am the Lord. I have promised that I would do this—and I will. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
1 From the depths of my despair I call to you, Lord.
2 Hear my cry, O Lord; listen to my call for help!
3 If you kept a record of our sins, who could escape being condemned?
4 But you forgive us, so that we should stand in awe of you.
5 I wait eagerly for the Lord’s help, and in his word I trust.
6 I wait for the Lord more eagerly than watchmen wait for the dawn— than watchmen wait for the dawn.
7 Israel, trust in the Lord, because his love is constant and he is always willing to save.
8 He will save his people Israel from all their sins.
6 To be controlled by human nature results in death; to be controlled by the Spirit results in life and peace.
7 And so people become enemies of God when they are controlled by their human nature; for they do not obey God’s law, and in fact they cannot obey it.
8 Those who obey their human nature cannot please God.
9 But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to—if, in fact, God’s Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
10 But if Christ lives in you, the Spirit is life for you because you have been put right with God, even though your bodies are going to die because of sin.
11 If the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from death, lives in you, then he who raised Christ from death will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of his Spirit in you.
1 A man named Lazarus, who lived in Bethany, was ill. Bethany was the town where Mary and her sister Martha lived.
2 (This Mary was the one who poured the perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.)
3 The sisters sent Jesus a message: “Lord, your dear friend is ill.”
4 When Jesus heard it, he said, “The final result of this illness will not be the death of Lazarus; this has happened in order to bring glory to God, and it will be the means by which the Son of God will receive glory.”
5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6 Yet when he received the news that Lazarus was ill, he stayed where he was for two more days.
7 Then he said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “Teacher,” the disciples answered, “just a short time ago the people there wanted to stone you; and are you planning to go back?”
9 Jesus said, “A day has twelve hours, hasn’t it? So whoever walks in broad daylight does not stumble, for they see the light of this world.
10 But if they walk during the night they stumble, because they have no light.”
11 Jesus said this and then added, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I will go and wake him up.”
12 The disciples answered, “If he is asleep, Lord, he will get well.”
13 Jesus meant that Lazarus had died, but they thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
15 but for your sake I am glad that I was not with him, so that you will believe. Let us go to him.”
16 Thomas (called the Twin) said to his fellow-disciples, “Let us all go with the Teacher, so that we may die with him!”
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had been buried four days before.
18 Bethany was less than three kilometres from Jerusalem,
19 and many Judeans had come to see Martha and Mary to comfort them over their brother’s death.
20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house.
21 Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, Lord, my brother would not have died!
22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask him for.”
23 “Your brother will rise to life,” Jesus told her.
24 “I know,” she replied, “that he will rise to life on the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die;
26 and all those who live and believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord!” she answered. “I do believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
28 After Martha said this, she went back and called her sister Mary privately. “The Teacher is here,” she told her, “and is asking for you.”
29 When Mary heard this, she got up and hurried out to meet him.
30 (Jesus had not yet arrived in the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.)
31 The people who were in the house with Mary, comforting her, followed her when they saw her get up and hurry out. They thought that she was going to the grave to weep there.
32 Mary arrived where Jesus was, and as soon as she saw him, she fell at his feet. “Lord,” she said, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died!”
33 Jesus saw her weeping, and he saw how the people who were with her were weeping also; his heart was touched, and he was deeply moved.
34 “Where have you buried him?” he asked them. “Come and see, Lord,” they answered.
35 Jesus wept.
36 “See how much he loved him!” the people said.
37 But some of them said, “He gave sight to the blind man, didn’t he? Could he not have kept Lazarus from dying?”
38 Deeply moved once more, Jesus went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone placed at the entrance.
39 “Take the stone away!” Jesus ordered. Martha, the dead man’s sister, answered, “There will be a bad smell, Lord. He has been buried four days!”
40 Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believed?”
41 They took the stone away. Jesus looked up and said, “I thank you, Father, that you listen to me.
42 I know that you always listen to me, but I say this for the sake of the people here, so that they will believe that you sent me.”
43 After he had said this, he called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 He came out, his hands and feet wrapped in grave clothes, and with a cloth round his face. “Untie him,” Jesus told them, “and let him go.”
45 Many of the people who had come to visit Mary saw what Jesus did, and they believed in him.