43. After Jesus said this he called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44. The dead man came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with pieces of cloth. He had a handkerchief covering his face. Jesus said to the people, “Take off the cloth and let him go.”
45. There were many Jews who came to visit Mary. When they saw what Jesus did, many of them believed in him.
46. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus did.
47. Then the leading priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the high council. They said, “What should we do? This man is doing many miraculous signs.
48. If we let him continue doing these things, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away our Temple and our nation.”
49. One of the men there was Caiaphas. He was the high priest that year. He said, “You people know nothing!
50. It is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed. But you don’t realize this.”
51. Caiaphas did not think of this himself. As that year’s high priest, he was really prophesying that Jesus would die for the Jewish people.
52. Yes, he would die for the Jewish people. But he would also die for God’s other children scattered all over the world. He would die to bring them all together and make them one people.
53. That day the Jewish leaders began planning to kill Jesus.
54. So Jesus stopped traveling around openly among the Jews. He went away to a town called Ephraim in an area near the desert. He stayed there with his followers.
55. It was almost time for the Jewish Passover festival. Many people from the country went to Jerusalem before the Passover. They went to do the special things to make themselves pure for the festival.
56. The people looked for Jesus. They stood in the Temple area and asked each other, “Is he coming to the festival? What do you think?”
57. But the leading priests and the Pharisees had given a special order about Jesus. They said that anyone who knew where he was must tell them so that they could arrest him.