Old/New Testament
Mary and her ointment
12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany. Lazarus was there, the man he had raised from the dead. 2 So they made a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was among the company at table with him.
3 Then Mary took a pound of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She anointed Jesus’ feet with it, and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the smell of the perfume.
4 At this, Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was going to betray him), spoke up.
5 “Why wasn’t this ointment sold?” he asked. “It would have fetched a year’s wages! You could have given it to the poor!”
6 (He didn’t say this because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. He kept the common purse, and used to help himself to what was in it.)
7 “Let her alone,” replied Jesus. “She’s been keeping it for the day of my burial! 8 You always have the poor with you, but you won’t always have me.”
Jesus enters Jerusalem
9 When the great crowd of Judaeans discovered that Jesus was there, they came to Bethany not just because of Jesus, but to see Lazarus, the one he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus as well, 11 because many of the Judaeans were distancing themselves on account of him, and were believing in Jesus.
12 On the next day, the large crowd that had come up for the festival heard that Jesus had come to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him.
“Hosanna!” they shouted. “Welcome in the name of the Lord! Welcome to Israel’s king!”
14 Jesus found a little donkey and sat on it. As the Bible says,
15 Do not fear, daughter of Zion!
Look! Your king is coming now;
sitting on a donkey’s colt.
16 His disciples didn’t understand this to begin with. But when Jesus was glorified, they remembered that these things had been written about him, and that these things had been done to him. 17 The crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, told their story. 18 That’s why the crowd went out to meet him, because they heard that he had done this sign.
19 The Pharisees conferred.
“You see?” they said to each other. “It’s impossible. There’s nothing you can do. Look—the world has gone off after him!”
The seed must die
20 Some Greeks had come up with all the others to worship at the festival. 21 They went to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee.
“Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”
22 Philip went and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip went together to tell Jesus.
23 “The time has come,” said Jesus in reply. “This is the moment for the son of man to be glorified. 24 I’m telling you the solemn truth: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains all by itself. If it dies, though, it will produce lots of fruit. 25 If you love your life, you’ll lose it. If you hate your life in this world, you’ll keep it for the life of the coming age.
26 “If anyone serves me, they must follow me. Where I am, my servant will be too. If anyone serves me, the father will honor them.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.