John 12:1-26

Easy-to-Read Version

Jesus in Bethany With His Friends^(A)

12 Six days before the Passover festival, Jesus went to Bethany. That is where Lazarus lived, the man Jesus raised from death. ² There they had a dinner for Jesus. Martha served the food, and Lazarus was one of the people eating with Jesus. ³ Mary brought in a pint^[a] of expensive perfume made of pure nard. She poured the perfume on Jesus’ feet. Then she wiped his feet with her hair. And the sweet smell from the perfume filled the whole house.

⁴ Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ followers, was there—the one who would later hand Jesus over to his enemies. Judas said, ⁵ “That perfume was worth a full year’s pay.^[b] It should have been sold, and the money should have been given to the poor people.” ⁶ But Judas did not really care about the poor. He said this because he was a thief. He was the one who kept the moneybag for the group of followers. And he often stole money from the bag.

⁷ Jesus answered, “Don’t stop her. It was right for her to save this perfume for today—the day for me to be prepared for burial. ⁸ You will always have those who are poor with you.^[c] But you will not always have me.”

The Plot Against Lazarus

⁹ Many of the Jews heard that Jesus was in Bethany, so they went there to see him. They also went there to see Lazarus, the one Jesus raised from death. ¹⁰ So the leading priests made plans to kill Lazarus too. ¹¹ Because of him, many Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus. That is why they wanted to kill Lazarus too.

Jesus Enters Jerusalem Like a King^(B)

¹² The next day the people in Jerusalem heard that Jesus was coming there. These were the crowds of people who had come to the Passover festival. ¹³ They took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Jesus. They shouted,

¹⁴ Jesus found a donkey and rode on it, as the Scriptures say,

¹⁶ The followers of Jesus did not understand at that time what was happening. But after he was raised to glory, they understood that this was written about him. Then they remembered that they had done these things for him.

¹⁷ There were many people with Jesus when he raised Lazarus from death and told him to come out of the tomb. Now they were telling others about what Jesus did. ¹⁸ That’s why so many people went out to meet him—because they had heard about this miraculous sign he did. ¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to each other, “Look! Our plan is not working. The people are all following him!”

Jesus Talks About Life and Death

²⁰ There were some Greeks there too. These were some of the people who went to Jerusalem to worship at the Passover festival. ²¹ They went to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. They said, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.” ²² Philip went and told Andrew. Then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

²³ Jesus said to them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to receive his glory. ²⁴ It is a fact that a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die before it can grow and produce much more wheat. If it never dies, it will never be more than a single seed. ²⁵ Whoever loves the life they have now will lose it. But whoever is willing to give up their life in this world will keep it. They will have eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me. My servants must be with me everywhere I am. My Father will give honor to anyone who serves me.