Chapter 11
In Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha, their brother Lazarus was sick. The sisters sent to JESUS saying, “LORD, he whom You love is sick.” When JESUS heard that He said, “This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of GOD that the Son of GOD may be glorified through it.” He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi lately the Jews sought to stone You and You are going there again?” JESUS said, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world. If one walks in the night he stumbles because the light is not in him.” Then He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps so I go that I may wake him up.” Then His disciples said, “LORD if he sleeps he will get well.” However JESUS spoke of his death but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. JESUS said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there that you may believe, nevertheless let us go to him.” Then Thomas who is called the Twin said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go as well so that we may die with Him.”
So when JESUS came He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away, and many of the Jews had joined Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. As soon as Martha heard that JESUS was coming she went and met Him, Mary was sitting in the house. Martha said to JESUS, “LORD if You would have been here my brother would not have died, even now I know that whatever You ask of GOD, GOD will give You.” JESUS said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” JESUS said, “I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in Me though he may die he will live and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes LORD I believe that You are the CHRIST the Son of GOD who is to come into the world.” Then she went and secretly called Mary her sister saying, “The Teacher has come and is calling for you.” As soon as she heard that Mary rose and went to Him, JESUS had not yet come into the town but was in the place where Martha had met Him. Then the Jews who were with Mary in the house and comforting her when they saw that she rose up quickly and went out followed her saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.” Then when Mary came to where JESUS was she fell down at His feet saying to Him, “LORD if You had been here my brother would not have died.” JESUS saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping and He groaned in the Spirit and was troubled. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “LORD come and see.”, then JESUS wept. The Jews said, “See how He loved him!” Some of them said, “Could not this Man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?” Then JESUS again groaning in Himself came to the tomb, it was a cave and a stone lay against it. He said, “Take away the stone.” Martha said to Him, “LORD by this time there is a stench for he has been dead four days.” JESUS said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of GOD?” Then they took away the stone from the place where Lazarus was lying, JESUS lifted up His eyes and said, “Father I thank You that You have heard Me, I know that You always hear Me but because of the people who are standing by I said this so that they may believe that You sent Me.” When He had said these things He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus come forth!” Then Lazarus came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes and his face was wrapped with a cloth. JESUS said to them, “Loose him and let him go.”
Then many of the Jews who had come with Mary and had seen what JESUS did believed in Him. Some went away to the Pharisees and told them what JESUS had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs, if we let Him alone like this everyone will believe in Him and the Romans will come and take away both our position and nation.” Then Caiaphas being high priest that year said to them, “You know nothing at all nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people so that the whole nation should not perish.” This he did not say on his own authority but being high priest that year he prophesied that JESUS would die for the nation, and not for that nation only but also that He would gather together in one the children of GOD who were scattered abroad.
From that day on they plotted to put Him to death. So JESUS no longer walked openly among the Jews but went from there into the country near the wilderness to a city called Ephraim and there remained with His disciples.
It happened later as He returned to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village there met Him ten men who were lepers who stood far off. They lifted up their voices and said, “JESUS, Master, have mercy on us!” So when He saw them He said to them, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” and so it was that as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them when he saw that he was healed returned and with a loud voice glorified GOD and fell down on his face at JESUS’ feet giving Him thanks, he was a Samaritan. So JESUS said, “Were there not ten cleansed, where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to GOD except this foreigner?” He said to him, “Arise go your way, your faith has made you well.”
Once He was asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of GOD would come He answered them, “The Kingdom of GOD does not come with observation nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed the Kingdom of GOD is within you.”
Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man and you will not see it. They will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven so also the Son of Man will be in His day. First He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. As it was in the days of Noah so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was in the days of Lot they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day he who is on the housetop and his goods are in the house he should not come down to take them away. Likewise one who is in the field he should not turn back, remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you in that night there will be two men in one bed the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field the one will be taken and the other left.” They asked Him, “Where LORD?” He said, “Wherever the body is there the eagles will be gathered together.”
Then He spoke a parable to them that men should always pray and not lose heart, “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear GOD nor regard man. There was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ He would not for a while but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear GOD nor regard man yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her so that by her continual coming she does not wear me out.’” Then the LORD said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. Shall GOD not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of Man comes will He really find faith on the earth?”
Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others, “Two men went up to the temple to pray one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘GOD I thank You that I am not like other men extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give tithes of all that I possess.’ The tax collector standing far off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but beat his chest saying, ‘GOD be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The Pharisees came to Him testing Him asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” He answered them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh’? So then they are no longer two but one flesh. What GOD has joined together let no man separate.” They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to put her away?” He said to them, “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts permitted you to divorce your wives yet from the beginning it was not so. I say to you whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”
In the house His disciples asked Him again about the same matter saying, “If such is the case of the man with his wife it is better not to marry.” JESUS said to them, “All cannot accept this saying only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it let him accept it. Whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery against her and if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she commits adultery.”
Some brought little children to Him that He might bless them but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. When JESUS saw it He was greatly displeased and said to them, “Let the little children come to Me and do not forbid them for of such is the Kingdom of GOD. Truthfully I say to you whoever does not receive the Kingdom of GOD as a little child will by no means enter it.” Then He took them up in His arms laid His hands on them and blessed them.
A ruler came and said, “Good Teacher what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is GOD. If you want to enter into life keep the commandments.” He asked Him, “Which ones?” JESUS said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth what do I still lack?” JESUS said to him, “If you want to be perfect go sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow Me.” When the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.
Then JESUS said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Again I tell you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of GOD.” When His disciples heard it they were greatly astonished saying, “Who then can be saved?” JESUS looked at them and said, “With men this is impossible but with GOD all things are possible.” Then Peter said to Him, “We have left all and followed You so what shall we have?” JESUS said to them, “Truthfully I say to you that in the regeneration when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. I say to you there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for My sake and the gospel’s who shall not receive a hundredfold in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. Many who are first will be last and the last first.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day he sent them into his vineyard. He went out about nine in the morning and saw others standing idle in the marketplace and said to them, ‘You go into my vineyard with the others and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Again he went out about noon and three in the afternoon and did likewise. About five in the afternoon he went out and found others standing idle he asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into my vineyard and whatever is right you will receive.’ So when evening had come the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages beginning with the last to the first.’ When those came who were hired about five o’clock they each received a denarius. When the first ones came they supposed that they would receive more but they each received a denarius. When they had received it they complained to the landowner saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ He answered one of them, ‘Friend I am doing you no wrong, did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. If I wish to give to this last man the same as to you, is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ So the last will be first and the first last. For many are called but few chosen.”
They were on the road going up to Jerusalem and JESUS was going before them and they were amazed. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him, “We are going up to Jerusalem and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will whip Him and kill Him and the third day He will rise again.” They did not understand any of the things JESUS spoke to them for these saying were hidden from them.
Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons kneeling down and asking something from Him. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right hand and the other on the left in Your Kingdom.” JESUS answered, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.” So He said to them, “You will indeed drink My cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.”
When the ten heard it they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. JESUS called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, whoever desires to become great among you let him be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you let him be your slave just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.”
When JESUS entered Jericho, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector and he was rich. He sought to see who JESUS was but could not because of the crowd for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him for He was going to pass that way. When JESUS came to the place He looked up and saw him and said to him, “Zacchaeus hurry down for today I must stay at your house.” He came down quickly and received Him joyfully. When everyone saw it they all complained saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.” Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the LORD, “Look LORD I give half of my goods to the poor and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation I restore fourfold.” JESUS said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
As He went out of Jericho with His disciples a great multitude followed; blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus sat by the road begging. When he heard that it was JESUS of Nazareth he began to cry out and say, “JESUS, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Then many warned him to be quiet but he cried out all the more, “Son of David have mercy on me!” So JESUS stopped and commanded him to be called. Then they called the blind man saying to him, “Be of good cheer, rise He is calling you.” Throwing aside his garment he rose and came to JESUS. JESUS said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Bartimaeus said to Him, “Rabboni, I want to receive my sight.” JESUS said to him, “Go your way your faith has made you well.” and immediately he received his sight and followed JESUS on the road.
When the time had come for JESUS to be received up He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead and they entered a village in Samaria to prepare for Him. The Samaritans did not receive Him because He was set on going to Jerusalem. When James and John saw this they said to JESUS, “LORD, do You want us to command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them just as Elijah did?” JESUS rebuked them saying, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” Then they went to another village.
JESUS spoke another parable because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the Kingdom of GOD would appear immediately He said, “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants delivered to them ten minas and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’ His citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’ So it was that when he returned having received the kingdom he then commanded the ten servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. The first came saying, ‘Master your mina has earned ten minas.’ He said to him, ‘Well done good servant because you were faithful in a very little have authority over ten cities.’ The second came saying, ‘Master your mina has earned five minas.’ Likewise the master said to him, ‘You be over five cities.’ Then another came saying, ‘Master here is your mina which I have kept put away in a handkerchief, because I feared you for you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’ The master said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’ He said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him and give it to him who has ten minas.’ They said to him, ‘Master he has ten minas.’ ‘I say to you that to everyone who has more will be given and from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away from him. Now bring here those enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them and slay them before me.’”
Then six days before the Passover JESUS came to Bethany where Lazarus whom He had raised from the dead lived. As the Passover of the Jews was near many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They sought JESUS and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple, “What do you think, will He come to the feast?” Both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command that if anyone knew where He was he should report it that they might seize Him. A great many of the Jews knew that He was there and they came not for JESUS’ sake only but that they might also see Lazarus whom He had raised from the dead. The chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also because on account of him many of the Jews believed in JESUS.
