John 12:5-25

Common English Bible

⁵ “This perfume was worth a year’s wages!^[a] Why wasn’t it sold 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 carried the money bag and would take what was in it.)

⁷ Then Jesus said, “Leave her alone. This perfume was to be used in preparation for my burial, and this is how she has used it. ⁸ You will always have the poor among you, but you won’t always have me.”

⁹ Many 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. ¹⁰ The chief priests decided that they would kill Lazarus too. ¹¹ It was because of Lazarus that many of the Jews had deserted them and come to believe in Jesus.

Jesus enters Jerusalem

¹² The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³ They took palm branches and went out to meet him. They shouted,

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

¹⁶ His disciples didn’t understand these things at first. After he was glorified, they remembered that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.

¹⁷ The crowd who had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead were testifying about him. ¹⁸ That’s why the crowd came to meet him, because they had heard about this miraculous sign that he had done. ¹⁹ Therefore, the Pharisees said to each other, “See! You’ve accomplished nothing! Look! The whole world is following him!”

Jesus teaches about his death

²⁰ Some Greeks were among those who had come up to worship at the festival. ²¹ They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and made a request: “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” ²² Philip told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip told Jesus.

²³ Jesus replied, “The time has come for the Human One^[d] to be glorified. ²⁴ I assure you that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it can only be a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵ Those who love their lives will lose them, and those who hate their lives in this world will keep them forever.