Study Desk

Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him.

But some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the blind man's eyes, have kept this man from dying?"

"I knew that You always hear Me and listen to Me; but I have said this because of the people standing around, so that they may believe that You have sent Me [and that You have made Me Your representative]."

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

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year [the year of Christ's crucifixion], said to them, "You know nothing at all!

Now he did not say this [simply] on his own initiative; but being the high priest that year, he [was unknowingly used by God and] prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,

and not only for the nation, but also for the purpose of gathering together into one body the children of God who have been scattered abroad.

For that reason Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but left there and went to the district that borders on the uninhabited wilderness, to a town called Ephraim; and He stayed there with the disciples.

But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, the one who was going to betray Him, said,

Now he said this, not because he cared about the poor [for he had never cared about them], but because he was a thief; and since he had the money box [serving as treasurer for the twelve disciples], he used to pilfer what was put into it.

"You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me."

A large crowd of Jews learned that He was there [at Bethany]; and they came, not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.

His disciples did not understand [the meaning of] these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified and exalted, they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him.

"I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone [just one grain, never more]. But if it dies, it produces much grain and yields a harvest.

"The one who loves his life [eventually] loses it [through death], but the one who hates his life in this world [and is concerned with pleasing God] will keep it for life eternal.

"Now My soul is troubled and deeply distressed; what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour [of trial and agony]'? But it is for this [very] purpose that I have come to this hour [this time and place].

Nevertheless, even many of the leading men believed in Him [as Savior and Messiah], but because of the Pharisees they would not confess it, for fear that [if they acknowledged Him openly] they would be put out of the synagogue (excommunicated);

But Jesus loudly declared, "The one who believes and trusts in Me does not believe [only] in Me but [also believes] in Him who sent Me.

"If anyone hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge and condemn the world [that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world], but to save the world.

"For I have never spoken on My own initiative or authority, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment regarding what to say and what to speak.