Ezekiel 37:1-14, Psalm 130, John 11:1-45
Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by
the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full
of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley,
and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I
answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones,
and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God
to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will
lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with
skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am
the Lord.”
So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I
prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came
together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh
had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the
breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and
breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me,
and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast
multitude.
Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house
of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut
off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I
am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people;
and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am
the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my
people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place
you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and
will act, says the Lord.”
Psalm 130
Out of the
depths I cry to you, O Lord.
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your
ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!
If you, O
Lord, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
But there is
forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.
I wait for
the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul
waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel,
hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who
will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities.
John
11:1-45
Now a
certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister
Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet
with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to
Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This
illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son
of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and
her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two
days longer in the place where he was.
Then after
this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said
to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going
there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those
who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this
world. But those who walk at night
stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend
Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has
fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his
death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told
them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your
sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to
his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
When Jesus
arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now
Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come
to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she
went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been
here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you
whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to
her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise
again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and
the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will
never die. Do you believe this?” She
said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God,
the one coming into the world.”
When she had
said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately,
“The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up
quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had
not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met
him. The Jews who were with her in the
house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her
because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him,
she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother
would not have died.” When Jesus saw her
weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed
in spirit and deeply moved. He said,
“Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But
some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept
this man from dying?”
Then Jesus,
again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying
against it. Jesus said, “Take away the
stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there
is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if
you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And
Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew
that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd
standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said
this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out,
his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth.
Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Many of the
Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in
him.