John 11:41-53

⁴¹So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up toward heaven and said, “My Father, I thank you that you heard me when I prayed about this earlier.

⁴²I know that you always hear me when I pray. But instead of just praying silently, I said that for the sake of the people who are standing here. I want them to believe that you sent me.”

⁴³After he said that, he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”

⁴⁴The man who had been dead came out! The strips of cloth were still wrapped around his hands and feet, and a cloth was still around his face, but he came out! Jesus said to them, “Take off the cloths so that he can walk easily!” So they did that.

⁴⁵As a result, many of the Jews who had come to see Mary and who had seen what Jesus did, believed that he ◄ was the Messiah/had come from God►.

⁴⁶But some of the others went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

⁴⁷So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered all the members of the Jewish Council together. They started saying to each other, “What are we going to do about Jesus? He is performing many miracles!

⁴⁸If we allow him to keep doing this, everyone will believe ◄in him/that he is the Messiah►, and they will make him their king. Then the Roman army will come and destroy our Temple and our whole nation of Israel!”

⁴⁹One of the Jewish Council members was Caiaphas. He was the Jewish high priest that year. Hinting that they should get rid of Jesus, he said to them, “You talk as though you do not know anything HYP!

⁵⁰You do not realize that it would be much better for us if one man died for the sake of the people rather than that the Romans kill all the people of our Jewish nation.”

⁵¹He said that, not because he thought of it himself. Instead, since he was the high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the whole Jewish nation.

⁵²But he was also prophesying that Jesus would die, not just for the Jews, but for all the people living in other lands who would belong to God, in order that he would unite all of them into one group.

⁵³So from that day the Jewish leaders started to make plans how they could kill Jesus.