44
The dead man came out. Strips of cloth were wound around his feet and hands, and his face was wrapped with a handkerchief. Jesus told them, "Free Lazarus, and let him go."
45
Many Jews who had visited Mary and had seen what Jesus had done believed in him.
46
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47
So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council. They asked, "What are we doing? This man is performing a lot of miracles.
48
If we let him continue what he's doing, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will take away our position and our nation."
49
One of them, Caiaphas, who was chief priest that year, told them, "You people don't know anything.
50
You haven't even considered this: It is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed."
51
Caiaphas didn't say this on his own. As chief priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation.
52
He prophesied that Jesus wouldn't die merely for this nation, but that Jesus would die to bring God's scattered children together and make them one.
53
From that day on, the Jewish council planned to kill Jesus.
54
So Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews. Instead, he left Bethany and went to the countryside near the desert, to a city called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.