John 12:1–19

Jesus with Friends in Bethany

12Six days before the Passover Feast, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus lived. (Lazarus is the man Jesus raised from the dead.) ²There they had a dinner for Jesus. Martha served the food, and Lazarus was one of the people eating with Jesus. ³Mary brought in a pint of very expensive perfume made from pure nard. She poured the perfume on Jesus’ feet, and then she wiped his feet with her hair. And the sweet smell from the perfume filled the whole house.

⁴Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ followers who would later turn against him, was there. Judas said, ⁵“This perfume was worth an entire year’s wages. Why wasn’t it sold and the money given to the poor?” ⁶But Judas did not really care about the poor; he said this because he was a thief. He was the one who kept the money box, and he often stole from it.

⁷Jesus answered, “Leave her alone. It was right for her to save this perfume for today, the day for me to be prepared for burial. ⁸You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.”

The Plot Against Lazarus

⁹A large crowd of people heard that Jesus was in Bethany. So they went there to see not only Jesus but Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. ¹⁰So the leading priests made plans to kill Lazarus, too. ¹¹Because of Lazarus many of the Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus.

Jesus Enters Jerusalem

¹²The next day a great crowd who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast heard that Jesus was coming there. ¹³So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Jesus, shouting,

“Praise ⁿ God!

God bless the One who comes in the name of the Lord!

God bless the King of Israel!”

¹⁴Jesus found a colt and sat on it. This was as the Scripture says,

¹⁵“Don’t be afraid, people of Jerusalem!

Your king is coming,

sitting on the colt of a donkey.”

¹⁶The followers of Jesus did not understand this at first. But after Jesus was raised to glory, they remembered that this had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.

People Tell About Jesus

¹⁷There had been many people with Jesus when he raised Lazarus from the dead and told him to come out of the tomb. Now they were telling others about what Jesus did. ¹⁸Many people went out to meet Jesus, because they had heard about this miracle. ¹⁹So the Pharisees said to each other, “You can see that nothing is going right for us. Look! The whole world is following him.”