John 12

₁It was 6 days before the Passover and Jesus went to Bethany, the town where Lazarus lived. (Lazarus was the one that Jesus had made alive again after he had died). ₂Jesus' friends made a special meal for Him and Martha cooked the food. Lazarus was also eating with them. ₃Mary had a jar of expensive perfume and she poured it onto Jesus' feet and then she dried his feet with her hair. They could smell the sweet perfume everywhere in the house. ₄Judas Iscariot was one of Jesus' disciples. He was the disciple who later betrayed Jesus. He said: ₅‘Mary has wasted this expensive perfume. We could have sold it for 300 silver_coins and given the money to poor people.’

₆But Judas was not_really worried about poor people. He was a thief. He carried the money bag of Jesus and his disciples and he often took some of the money for himself. ₇Jesus said: ‘Don't stop her. She kept this perfume to anoint Me now for the day that they will bury Me. ₈You will always have poor people with you and you can give them money when you want to, but I will not always be with you.’

₉A lot of Jews found out that Jesus was in the town of Bethany and they came to the town. They wanted to see Jesus, but they also wanted to see Lazarus because Jesus had made him alive again. ₁₀The chief_priests made plans to kill Lazarus ₁₁because a lot of Jews had heard that Jesus had made Lazarus alive again and they did not listen to the Jewish_leaders anymore. They started to believe in Jesus.

₁₂The next day someone told the people that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. There were a lot of people in Jerusalem for the Passover. ₁₃The people took branches of palm trees and they went to Jesus. They shouted_loudly and said:

₁₄Jesus found a donkey and He sat on the donkey. It happened as it is written in the Old_Testament:

₁₆On that day Jesus' disciples did not understand what had happened. They understood it later after God had shown them that Jesus is God. Then they remembered that the Old_Testament said these things about Jesus. ₁₇The people who were with Jesus when He called Lazarus to come out of the tomb, and to live again, told this to all the people everywhere they went. ₁₈A lot of people heard about this miracle that Jesus had done and they came to Jerusalem to see Him. ₁₉The Pharisees said to each other: ‘There is nothing we can do. Everyone is following Jesus.’

₂₀There were also Greeks who came to Jerusalem for the Passover to worship God. ₂₁Some of the Greeks came to Philip and said to him: ‘Sir, we want to talk to Jesus.’ (Philip came from the town of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee). ₂₂Philip went to Andrew and he told Andrew that the Greeks wanted to talk to Jesus. Then Andrew and Philip went to Jesus and they told Him that the Greeks wanted to see Him. ₂₃Jesus said to them: ‘The time has come. God will now show that I, the Son of man, am also God. ₂₄I tell you this and it is sure: When you sow a grain_of_wheat and it goes into the ground, it dies and then it starts to grow and then it gives lots of seeds. But if the grain_of_wheat does not fall into the ground, it will never be more than one seed. It will be alone. ₂₅If anyone thinks his life is important, then he will lose his life. But if someone knows that his life on earth is not important, then he will live. He will have eternal_life. ₂₆Everyone who serves Me must do what I do and they must be where I want them to be. My Father will honour everyone who serves Me.’

₂₇Jesus said: ‘I am very worried and upset. What must I ask my Father? Must I ask Him to save Me so that I will not suffer? No, I will not ask that, because I came to this world to suffer.’

₂₈Jesus prayed and He said: ‘Father, show the people that you are God.’ Then God spoke from heaven and He said: ‘I have already shown that I am God and I will do it again.’

₂₉The people who were there heard God speaking. Some of them said: ‘We have heard thunder’, and other people said: ‘An angel has talked to Jesus.’

₃₀Then Jesus told them: ‘God spoke from heaven so that you can hear his voice. He did not do it to help Me but to help you. ₃₁God is going to judge the people of the world now. He will defeat Satan, the leader of the people of this world. ₃₂When I am lifted up from the earth, I will bring all the people to Me.’ ₃₃(When Jesus said He would be lifted up from the earth, He meant that He would hang on a cross).

₃₄The people said: ‘The Old_Testament says that the Christ will live forever on earth, but You say the Son of man will be lifted above the earth. Who is this Son of man that You talk about?’

₃₅Jesus said to them: ‘I am the light. The light will be with you only for a short time. You must keep on walking while there is light and you can see. Then when it gets dark, you will not be afraid. When you walk in the dark, you do not know where you are going. ₃₆I am the light and I am here with you. You must believe in Me, then you will be children of the light.’

After Jesus had said this, He went away and they did not know where He was.

₃₇The people saw all the miracles that Jesus had done, but they still did not believe in Him. ₃₈This happened because the prophet Isaiah had said:

₃₉Isaiah also said why they could not believe. ₄₀He said:

₄₁Isaiah said all of this because he saw that Jesus was God. Yes, Isaiah spoke about Jesus. ₄₂A lot of people started to believe in Jesus, even some of the Jewish_leaders. But they did not tell anyone. They were afraid of the Pharisees who said that they could never go into the synagogue again if they believed in Jesus. ₄₃Those leaders wanted other people to say good things about them, more than they wanted God to say they were good.

₄₄Jesus said loudly: ‘Anyone who believes in Me does not believe only in Me. He also believes in God who has sent Me to the world. ₄₅Yes, if someone sees Me, then he also sees God who has sent Me to the world. ₄₆I came to be a light for the people of the world. That is why anyone who believes in Me will not live in the dark.

₄₇I came to the world, not to judge the people of the world. I came to save them. That is why I will not judge people who hear what I say but don't do what I say. ₄₈No, it is my words that will judge them on the last day. The message that I have spoken will judge everyone who did not want to believe in Me or listen to the words that I said. ₄₉The things that I say do not come from Me. The Father who has sent Me to the world has told Me to say every word that I speak. ₅₀I know the things that the Father said to Me give eternal_life. That is why I have told you everything that the Father has said to Me.’