W E E K S I X

Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.’ ~ John 11:25 ~

As you read John 11–13, take time to notice the characters, their responses and the themes you encounter.

What does life-giving leadership look like?

Notice …

11:1 – 11:27

JOHN 11 – 13

11 Now a man named Lazarus was ill. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay ill, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is ill.’

4 When he heard this, Jesus said, ‘This illness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.’ 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go back to Judea.’

8 ‘But Rabbi,’ they said, ‘a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?’

9 Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the day-time will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.’

11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.’

12 His disciples replied, ‘Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.’ 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

14 So then he told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’

16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’

Jesus comforts the sisters of Lazarus

17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

21 ‘Lord,’ Martha said to Jesus, ‘if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.’

23 Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’

24 Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’

25 Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?’

27 ‘Yes, Lord,’ she replied, ‘I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.’

11:28 – 11:46

28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. ‘The Teacher is here,’ she said, ‘and is asking for you.’ 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 ‘Where have you laid him?’ he asked.

‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied.

35 Jesus wept.

36 Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’

37 But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 ‘Take away the stone,’ he said.

‘But, Lord,’ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.’

40 Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth round his face.

Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.’

The plot to kill Jesus

45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.’

11:47 – 12:11

47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

‘What are we accomplishing?’ they asked. ‘Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.’

49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, ‘You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realise that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.’

51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.

54 Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

55 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. 56 They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, ‘What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?’ 57 But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.

Jesus anointed at Bethany

12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about half a litre of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.’ 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

7 ‘Leave her alone,’ Jesus replied. ‘It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.’

9 Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11 for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

12:12 – 12:33

Jesus comes to Jerusalem as king

12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

‘Hosanna!’

‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’

‘Blessed is the king of Israel!’

14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written:

15 ‘Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.’

16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realise that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.

17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, ‘See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!’

Jesus predicts his death

20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we would like to see Jesus.’ 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

23 Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me.

27 ‘Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!’

Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.’

29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

30 Jesus said, ‘This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

12:34 – 13:1

34 The crowd spoke up, ‘We have heard from the Law that the Messiah will remain for ever, so how can you say, “The Son of Man must be lifted up”? Who is this “Son of Man”?’

35 Then Jesus told them, ‘You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. 36 Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.’ When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.

Belief and unbelief among the Jews

37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfil the word of Isaiah the prophet:

‘Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’

39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:

40 ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.’

41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.

42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.

44 Then Jesus cried out, ‘Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no-one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

47 ‘If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. 49 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.’

Jesus washes his disciples’ feet

13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

13:2 – 13:27

2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’

7 Jesus replied, ‘You do not realise now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’

8 ‘No,’ said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’

Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’

9 ‘Then, Lord,’ Simon Peter replied, ‘not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!’

10 Jesus answered, ‘Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.’ 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. 13 ‘You call me “Teacher” and “Lord”, and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Jesus predicts his betrayal

18 ‘I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfil this passage of Scripture:

“He who shared my bread has turned against me.”

19 ‘I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. 20 Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.’

21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.’

22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ‘Ask him which one he means.’

25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’

26 Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

13:28 – 13:38

So Jesus told him, ‘What you are about to do, do quickly.’ 28 But no-one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

Jesus predicts Peter’s denial

31 When he was gone, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

33 ‘My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: where I am going, you cannot come.

34 ‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’

36 Simon Peter asked him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’

Jesus replied, ‘Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.’

37 Peter asked, ‘Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’

38 Then Jesus answered, ‘Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the cock crows, you will disown me three times!’

Her story

Muneera: ‘They treated me worse than an animal’

At first glance, 22-year-old Muneera could be mistaken for an airline stewardess. Her brown-tinted hair is twisted into a coiffed bun. Her lipstick is a bright pink, matching her clothes. Her nails look perfectly manicured. As she walks about the shelter home, her heels tap the floor with sureness. Muneera appears as if she was raised by parents who taught her about poise and confidence. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Muneera’s father died when she was an infant. She doesn’t remember much about her mother, except what she has been told. Her mom was fighting demons of her own, maybe it was black magic, maybe it was past trauma. Muneera is unsure. But she clearly remembers that, at the age of four, she was sent to live with an adoptive family in Mumbai.

It was a family known to her mother. That was the full extent of the information Muneera had of the strangers who became her parents. On the outside, they looked like a regular family: mom, dad and two sons. But Muneera is nervous when she talks about them. ‘They treated me worse than an animal,’ she says. ‘I can’t even say I was their slave or their prisoner. It was worse.’

As a four-year-old, Muneera was made to cook and clean for the family. If she happened to overcook the rice or if something slipped from her hand and broke, she was whipped with a belt or beaten with a rolling pin. If she cried, she was beaten some more. If she smiled for any reason, she was angrily questioned, ‘Why are you so happy?’ She recalls the time when she was made to drink from a bucket of water that was being used to mop the floor. Often, as punishment for bad behaviour, she was made to kneel in the kitchen sink for hours together. She was fed every now and then, just enough to keep her alive. For seven years, she endured the torture at the hands of her so-called parents.

One afternoon, after another beating, Muneera was made to kneel on the floor with her back bent and face to the ground. A hanger was placed on her back so if she shifted her position it would fall and alert her parents. Muneera, by then 11 years old, waited for her adoptive mother to take a nap and seized the moment to run out of the house. She ran till she boarded a bus. The bus took her to the outskirts of Mumbai. When the police found Muneera, she was questioned about her family: ‘Where are you from? Who are your parents? If you don’t answer, we will give you shock treatment.’

There was one thing she insisted on: ‘I don’t have a family.’ Muneera was sent to a government-run children’s home in Mumbai for the next few years. ‘At the home they thought I had some abnormality because I would do nothing all day,’ she says. Her voice is strained. ‘I didn’t speak to anyone. I would just sit lifelessly in a corner.’

She was then moved to a Catholic hostel where she completed Standard 10. It was here that, for the first time in her life, Muneera felt valued as a person. It was here that her suppressed emotions came tumbling out in angry outbursts. She would scream, angrily throw things on the floor and push away those who tried to intervene. Muneera was given psychiatric therapy and treated at a hospital for the trauma she had undergone.

After a few years at the hostel, Muneera decided she wanted to be independent. ‘The Father at the hostel told me not to leave as I didn’t know anything about the world,’ she says. But Muneera wanted to live on her own. She had made a friend on Facebook. He seemed like a good guy, about 19 years old, just like her. He ran an event-planning company in Bangalore and promised Muneera a job that would pay ₹1,000 to ₹2,000 a day. It seemed like the perfect opportunity. He even booked her a bus ticket from Mumbai to Bangalore.

Muneera felt like she had her first big break. ‘I thought this was my chance,’ she recollects. Sudheer met her at the bus station and took her to his house. About ten other girls sat around the living room. ‘I asked the girls, “Is this an event-planning centre? Is today a holiday from work?”,’ she remembers. That evening, Sudheer took Muneera and the girls to a dance bar. The girls were paraded around and serviced the men who frequented the spot. ‘I was so ashamed. I wanted to run away, but what could I tell the Father at the hostel? My reputation had gone,’ recalls Muneera.

Two months down the line, the police conducted a raid and rescued the girls. Muneera was one of the first to speak up—she would testify against Sudheer. She was also open about the fact that she needed help. She was yearning for a way out. She finally called the Father at her old hostel.

‘

I told him everything,’ she says with relief. The Father contacted a social worker, and Muneera was rescued and moved to rehabilitative care and then to a Christian shelter home.

Muneera still has angry outbursts. She sometimes screams in uncontrolled fury. But she is slowly seeing herself in a whole new light.

‘I had attempted to kill myself so many times as a child. And each time I failed. I see now that God was protecting me,’ she smiles. ‘I don’t trust in any person now. But I trust God.’ Through the testimonies of others like her who have been rescued, and through her own journey, Muneera has begun to understand God’s personal love for her. She has taken baptism and says with a smile, ‘Jesus is my friend.’

Muneera, who was discarded by her mother and abused by her adoptive parents, is finally receiving love from her shelter home guardian. ‘When aunty hugs me, I feel like someone is there for me,’ she says. Her goal is to one day advocate for girls just like her. ‘I would like to be a businesswoman, but my first dream is to rescue people. If I can help at least one soul, it will be worth it. That is my responsibility now.’

Reflect

Stronger than death

Martha stood by her brother’s graveside, overcome by the sudden events that had permanently altered the landscape of her life. In such a short time he had been taken from them, and now nothing could bring him back. Mentally replaying the events of the past days and weeks, Martha tried to make sense of how it had come to this. What could she have done differently to prevent this unforeseen disaster? Martha had been powerless to heal her brother, powerless to prevent his death.

But Jesus wasn’t. He had the power to stop this from happening, and she had begged him to come to their aid while there was still time. But he hadn’t intervened immediately. Didn’t he love her enough to show up when she most needed him? Now the worst had happened, and there was no going back to the life she had known. Jesus hadn’t come through and Lazarus was dead. Martha’s hope lay buried in the grave alongside her brother’s corpse.

Knowing Martha’s heart, Jesus gently addressed its deepest need. Standing beside her in her grief, he offered a new kind of hope—not the kind that prevents horrible things from happening, but one that opens up new possibilities even after they have. Though she couldn’t see the miraculous ending that he was preparing, he invited her to believe that he was and had been actively present through this dark night of her soul. Even with her dreams still lying in the grave, Jesus resurrected Martha’s hope for living. He told her:

‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ (John 11:25–26)

And he raised Lazarus from the dead so that Martha would believe that he was indeed the resurrection and the life.

Jesus stood by his own graveside comforting another woman in distress (John 20:15). Mary Magdalene had every reason to be crying. Before she met Jesus, her life had been one of horror. Tormented by seven demons that made her life a waking nightmare, she had suffered inescapable abuse by inhuman hands.

Mary had been powerless to free herself from their grip, but with a word, Jesus rescued her. Ever since then she had been constantly by his side, travelling with his band of disciples and attending to his needs (Luke 8:1–3). Jesus was her ‘safe place,’ the only person willing and able to protect her from the evil that had sought to consume her. As long as she was with him, Mary no longer feared evil or the social stigma of having been demon-possessed. How could she go on living without him? Jesus’ resurrection brought Mary a new lease of life.

And now Mary stood beside the grave of the one in whom she had found a safe place. Was she to lose hope all over again? No.

Calling her by name, Jesus brought Mary’s healing to the next level by empowering her with a purpose. He entrusted her with the significant task of carrying his resurrection message to the apostles, the leaders of his foundling church.

In fulfilling her God-revealed commission, every Mary, Martha and Muneera would discover the presence of Jesus powerfully at work in her, setting her up as more than a conqueror through him who loved her. Likewise, through the prayers and presence of his people, Jesus continues to rescue women from the abuse they suffer. Through them, he offers a safe place where the abused can find ongoing refuge. He empowers them with the skills and resources to pursue a life with purpose. Jesus’ resurrection power still offers hope for a new kind of life for those who have lost all hope.

Engage

What does life-giving leadership look like?

  1. Identify
  1. Interpret
  1. Involve
  1. Intercede