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 leaving their side 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 honour them.’
The Hour Has Come
27 ‘Now my heart is troubled,’ Jesus went on. ‘What am I going to say? “Father, save me from this moment?” No! It was because of this that I came to this moment. 28 Father, glorify your name!’
‘I have glorified it,’ came a voice from heaven, ‘and I will glorify it again.’
29 ‘That was thunder!’ said the crowd, standing there listening.
‘No,’ said others. ‘It was an angel, talking to him.’
30 ‘That voice came for your sake, not mine,’ replied Jesus. 31 ‘Now comes the judgment of this world! Now this world’s ruler is going to be thrown out! 32 And when I’ve been lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.’
33 He said this in order to point to the kind of death he was going to die.
34 So the crowd spoke to him again.
‘We heard in the law’, they said, ‘that the Messiah will last for ever. How can you say that the son of man must be lifted up? Who is this “son of man”?’
35 ‘The light is among you a little while longer,’ replied Jesus. ‘Keep walking while you have the light, in case the darkness overcomes you. People who walk in the dark don’t know where they’re going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may be children of light.’
With these words, Jesus went away and was hidden from them.
Glory and Blindness
37 They didn’t believe in him, even though he had done so many signs in front of their eyes. 38 This was so that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:
Lord, who believed the story we told?
Your powerful arm – who saw it unveiled?
39 That’s why they couldn’t believe. As Isaiah again put it,
40 He has caused their eyes to be blind,
and caused their hearts to be hard;
so they wouldn’t see with their eyes,
or understand with their hearts,
or turn, so that I could heal them.
41 Isaiah said this because he saw his glory, and spoke about him.
42 Even so, however, quite a few of the rulers did believe in him. But, because of the Pharisees, they didn’t declare their faith, for fear of being put out of the synagogue. 43 This was because they loved the praise of other people more than the praise of God.
The Final Challenge
44 ‘Anyone who believes in me’, shouted Jesus in a loud voice, ‘doesn’t believe in me, but in the one who sent me! 45 Anyone who sees me sees the one who sent me! 46 I’ve come into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me won’t need to stay in the dark.
47 ‘If anyone hears my words and doesn’t keep them, I’m not going to judge them. That wasn’t why I came. I came to save the world, not to judge it. 48 Anyone who rejects me and doesn’t hold on to my words has a judge. The word which I have spoken will judge them on the last day.
49 ‘I haven’t spoken on my own authority. The father who sent me gave me his own command about what I should say and speak. 50 And I know that his command is the life of the coming age. What I speak, then, is what the father has told me to speak.’