John 12:1–19

Mary Anoints Jesus

¹²Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.^{* 2}There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him.^{* 3}Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them^e with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.^{* 4}But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ⁵“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” ⁶(He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) ⁷Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it^f so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.^{* 8}You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”^*

The Plot to Kill Lazarus

⁹When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, ¹¹since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.^*

Jesus’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

¹²The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!

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

the King of Israel!”^*

¹⁴Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:

¹⁵“Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.

Look, your king is coming,

sitting on a donkey’s colt!”^*

¹⁶His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.^{* 17}So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify.^{g 18}It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him. ¹⁹The Pharisees then said to one another, “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!”^*