John 11:43–57

⁴³Then Jesus called in a loud voice. He said, “Lazarus, come out!”

⁴⁴The dead man came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with strips of linen. A cloth was around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the clothes he was buried in and let him go.”

The Plan to Kill Jesus

⁴⁵Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary saw what Jesus did. So they put their faith in him.

⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees. They told the Pharisees what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

“What can we do?” they asked. “This man is doing many miraculous signs. ⁴⁸If we let him keep on doing this, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come. They will take away our temple and our nation.”

⁴⁹One of them spoke up. His name was Caiaphas. He was high priest at that time. He said, “You don’t know anything at all! ⁵⁰You don’t realize what is good for you. It is better if one man dies for the people than if the whole nation is destroyed.”

⁵¹He did not say this on his own. But he was high priest at that time. So he told ahead of time that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation. ⁵²He also prophesied that Jesus would die for God’s children scattered everywhere. He would die to bring them together and make them one.

⁵³So from that day on, the Jewish rulers planned to kill Jesus.

⁵⁴Jesus no longer moved around openly among the Jews. Instead, he went away to an area near the desert. He went to a village called Ephraim. There he stayed with his disciples.

⁵⁵It was almost time for the Jewish Passover Feast. Many people went up from the country to Jerusalem. They went there for the special washing that would make them pure before the Passover Feast. ⁵⁶They kept looking for Jesus as they stood in the temple area. They asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the Feast at all?”

⁵⁷But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders. They had commanded anyone who found out where Jesus was staying to report it. Then they could arrest him.