John 12:12-19

New Life Version

The Last Time Jesus Goes to Jerusalem ^(A)

¹² The next day many people were in Jerusalem for the religious gathering. They heard Jesus was coming. ¹³ They took branches of trees and went to meet Him. They spoke with a loud voice, “Greatest One! Great and honored is He Who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of the Jews!” ¹⁴ Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it. The Holy Writings say, ¹⁵ “Do not be afraid, people of Jerusalem. See! Your King comes sitting on a young donkey!” ^{(B) 16} His followers did not understand what this meant at first. When Jesus had gone back to heaven to receive great honor, they remembered these things were written about Him. They remembered they had done this to Him.

¹⁷ The people who had been with Jesus when He had called Lazarus from the grave kept telling of this powerful work to others. They had seen Lazarus raised from the dead. ¹⁸ Because of this the people went to meet Jesus. They had heard He had done this powerful work. ¹⁹ The proud religious law-keepers said among themselves, “Look, we are losing followers. Everyone is following Jesus!”