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¹Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead.²A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him.³Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she ^banointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her …

³⁰Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him.³¹When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there.³²When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not …

¹⁷When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days.¹⁸Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem,¹⁹and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss.²⁰When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house.²¹Martha …

Lazarus: A Model of Jesus’ Resurrection

¹A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha.²This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick.³So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.”

⁴But …

Jesus at Hanukkah

²²It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication.²³He was in the Temple, walking through the section known as Solomon’s Colonnade.²⁴The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

²⁵Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and …

¹¹“I am the good ^hshepherd. The good ^hshepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. ¹²A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their ⁱshepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock.¹³The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and …

¹“I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber!²But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and …

Spiritual Blindness

³⁵When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

³⁶The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.”

³⁷“You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!”

³⁸“Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.

³⁹Then Jesus told him, “I entered …