¹Six days before Passover, Jesus arrived in Bethany. Lazarus, whom Jesus had brought back to life, lived there. ²Dinner was prepared for Jesus in Bethany. Martha served the dinner, and Lazarus was one of the people eating with Jesus.

³Mary took a bottle of very expensive perfume made from pure nard and poured it on Jesus’ feet. Then she dried his feet with her hair. The fragrance of the perfume filled the house.

⁴One of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was going to betray him, asked, ⁵“Why wasn’t this perfume sold for a high price and the money given to the poor?” ⁶(Judas didn’t say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the moneybag and carried the contributions.) ⁷Jesus said to Judas, “Leave her alone! She has done this to prepare me for the day I will be placed in a tomb. ⁸You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me with you.”

⁹A large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was in Bethany. So they went there not only to see Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had brought back to life. ¹⁰The chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too. ¹¹Lazarus was the reason why many people were leaving the Jews and believing in Jesus.

The King Comes to Jerusalem—Matthew 21:1–11; Mark 11:1–11; Luke 19:29–44

¹²On the next day the large crowd that had come to the Passover festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³So they took palm branches and went to meet him. They were shouting,

“Hosanna!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,

the king of Israel!”

¹⁴Jesus obtained a donkey and sat on it, as Scripture says:

¹⁵“Don’t be afraid, people of Zion!

Your king is coming.

He is riding on a donkey’s colt.”

¹⁶At first Jesus’ disciples didn’t know what these prophecies meant. However, when Jesus was glorified, the disciples remembered that these prophecies had been written about him. The disciples remembered that they had taken part in fulfilling the prophecies.

¹⁷The people who had been with Jesus when he called Lazarus from the tomb and brought him back to life reported what they had seen. ¹⁸Because the crowd heard that Jesus had performed this miracle, they came to meet him.

¹⁹The Pharisees said to each other, “This is getting us nowhere. Look! The whole world is following him!”

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