Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
This verse opens one of the most extraordinary stories in the Gospel of John — the account of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus lived in Bethany, a small village about two miles from Jerusalem, with his two sisters, Mary and Martha. All three were people Jesus loved deeply and visited often. At this point in the story, we only know that Lazarus is sick — the verse gives no hint of how serious it will become, or what Jesus will do when he finally arrives. What strikes readers later is how unremarkable this opening is: a name, a village, a family, an illness. It sounds like the beginning of a hundred other stories.
Lord, you are not surprised by the hard sentence that opened this chapter of my life. Help me trust that your presence doesn't always mean prevention — sometimes it means resurrection. I bring you what feels sick, what is struggling, what seems like it might already be too late. You are not too late. Amen.
Every catastrophe has a first sentence. Before a diagnosis becomes a crisis, someone just feels tired. Before a marriage unravels, there's one quiet evening when something feels slightly off. John 11 opens exactly like that — plainly, almost boringly. A man named Lazarus was sick. Just sick. His sisters probably thought he'd recover. Everything still seemed manageable. But here's what this quiet opening holds: Jesus already knew what was coming, and he wasn't caught off guard by a man named Lazarus being sick in a village called Bethany. The story will get much darker before it becomes miraculous — it always does. Whatever ordinary sentence is opening a hard chapter in your life right now, the rest of the story isn't written yet. The One who would later weep at a tomb is not absent from the first verse.
Why do you think John uses such plain, almost mundane details to open this story? What effect does that ordinariness have on a reader who already knows how it ends?
Can you think of a time in your own life when what started as a manageable problem turned into something far more serious? How did your faith hold up as things escalated?
Jesus deliberately delayed going to Lazarus even after hearing he was sick (John 11:6). How do you wrestle with the idea that God sometimes waits when everything in you is saying the situation is urgent?
Both Mary and Martha said the same thing to Jesus when he finally arrived: 'If you had been here, my brother would not have died.' Have you ever felt that kind of 'where were you?' toward God — and how does sitting with that grief affect the way you show up for others who are suffering?
Is there a situation in your life right now where you're tempted to write the ending of the story before it's over? What would it take to hold that open space a little longer?
These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
John 11:11
Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
John 11:3
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Luke 10:42
Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.
John 12:9
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
Luke 10:38
And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.
Matthew 21:17
Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
John 12:1
Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,
Matthew 26:6
Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived.
AMP
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
ESV
Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
NASB
The Death of Lazarus Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
NIV
Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
NKJV
A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha.
NLT
A man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
MSG