Jesus

I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me.”

After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth. “Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them.

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him.

But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.

If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

Caiaphas did not say this on his own. Instead, as high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation,

and not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to gather them together into one.

So from that day on they plotted to kill Him.

As a result, Jesus no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but He withdrew to a town called Ephraim in an area near the wilderness. And He stayed there with the disciples.

They kept looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple courts, “What do you think? Will He come to the feast at all?”

But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where He was must report it, so that they could arrest Him.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.

So they hosted a dinner for Jesus there. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with Him.

Then Mary took about a pint of expensive perfume, made of pure nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was going to betray Him, asked,

“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “She has kept this perfume in preparation for the day of My burial.

The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me.”

Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews learned that Jesus was there. And they came not only because of Him, but also to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.

for on account of him many of the Jews were deserting them and believing in Jesus.

The next day the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting: “Hosanna!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!”

Finding a young donkey, Jesus sat on it, as it is written:

“Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion. See, your King is coming, seated on the colt of a donkey.”