Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany — the town where Lazarus lived, the man Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took a pound of pure nard perfume, very expensive, and poured it on Jesus’s feet and wiped his feet with her hair. The whole house filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples — the one who was about to hand him over — said, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”[1] 6 He didn’t say this because he cared about the poor. He said it because he was a thief. He held the money bag and used to help himself to what was put into it.
7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She has kept it for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.”
## The Plot Against Lazarus
9 A large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, and they came — not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus too, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.
## The Triumphal Entry
12 The next day, the huge crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way into Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord — the King of Israel!”[2]
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written:
15 “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look — your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”
16 His disciples didn’t understand these things at first. But after Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and that they had done them for him.
17 Now the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead kept telling what they had seen. 18 That’s why the crowd went out to meet him — they heard he had performed this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see? You’re getting nowhere. Look — the whole world has gone after him.”
## Some Greeks Seek Jesus
20 Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.[3] 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
23 Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Amen, amen, I tell you: unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it stays alone. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, my servant will be there too. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”
## Jesus Speaks About His Death
27 “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say — ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No — it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.”
Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
29 The crowd standing there heard it and said it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”
30 Jesus answered, “This voice came not for my sake, but for yours. 31 Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be thrown out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show what kind of death he was about to die.
34 The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Anointed One remains forever. So how can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”[4]
35 Jesus said to them, “The light is with you just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, so the darkness doesn’t overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he’s going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so you may become children of light.”
## Belief and Unbelief
When Jesus had said these things, he went away and hid himself from them.
37 Even though he had performed so many signs right in front of them, they still did not believe in him. 38 This fulfilled the word of Isaiah the prophet, who said:
“Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 The reason they could not believe is that Isaiah also said:
40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they cannot see with their eyes or understand with their hearts and turn — and I would heal them.”
41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke about him.
42 Even so, many of the authorities did believe in him. But because of the Pharisees, they wouldn’t admit it openly, so they wouldn’t be thrown out of the synagogue.[5] 43 They loved human praise more than praise from God.
## Jesus’s Final Public Appeal
44 Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me doesn’t believe only in me, but in the one who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that no one who believes in me has to stay in the darkness.
47 “If anyone hears my words and doesn’t keep them, I don’t judge him — for I didn’t come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and doesn’t receive my words has a judge: the word I have spoken — that is what will judge him on the last day. 49 For I haven’t spoken on my own. The Father who sent me has given me a command about what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his command is eternal life. So whatever I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.”
Notes
Note 1. A denarius was roughly a day’s pay for an ordinary laborer, so three hundred of them came close to a full year’s wages. ↩
Note 2. “Hosanna” comes from a Hebrew phrase in Psalm 118, hoshiah na, meaning “save, please” or “save us.” Originally a cry for rescue, by the first century it had also become a shout of praise. ↩
Note 3. These “Greeks” (Hellenes) were non-Jews drawn to Israel’s God — likely “God-fearers” or Greek-speaking visitors rather than full converts. At the Temple they could go only as far as the outer Court of the Gentiles. ↩
Note 4. The expectation behind this was widely held: passages like Psalm 89 and Isaiah 9 speak of an anointed king from David’s line whose reign never ends. ↩
Note 5. The Greek term here, aposynagogos, means being cut off from the synagogue — the center of both worship and community life. Such expulsion carried real social cost: exclusion from communal prayer, study, and the network of belonging. ↩