Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Timothy Dean Roth is a writer, theologian, and artist who lives in Ridgefield, Washington. He holds degrees from Wheaton College and Duke Divinity School. This project was developed in cooperation with Zondervan Press, which provided publishing rights for the TNIV translation.

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The Week That Changed the World

Seabury Books

Contents

Chapter One

Within these two events we find the themes of death and resurrection, of decay and rebirth—themes that will continue throughout the rest of the story.

* * *

Now the Festival of Dedication had come at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon's Colonnade. The people there came and gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."

Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

They picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?"

"We are not stoning you for any good work," they replied, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."

Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are "gods"'? If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said 'I am God's Son'? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.

Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true." And in that place many believed in Jesus.

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

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

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

Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world's light. It is when people walk at night that they stumble, for they have no light."

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."

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

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

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

Now as Jesus started on his way, a certain ruler ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "And why do you ask me about what is good? No one is good—except God alone. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments."

"Which ones?" he inquired.

Jesus replied, "You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"

"Teacher," the young man declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy. What do I still lack?"

When Jesus heard this, he looked at him and loved him.

"You still lack one thing," Jesus answered. "If you want to be perfect, go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

When the young man heard this, his face fell. He went away very sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven."

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God."

When the disciples heard this, they were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"

Jesus looked at them and said, "With human beings this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?"

"Truly I tell you," Jesus replied, "at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake, and for the gospel of the kingdom of God, will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard....