14
“The Chief Priests and the Torah-Experts Were Looking for a Way to Have Jesus Arrested”
1 Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were two days away,+ and the chief priests and the Torah-experts were looking for a way to have Jesus+ arrested by deceitful means and then killed.
2 “But not during the festival,” they kept saying, “or a riot may break out among the people.”
“It Is a Very Beautiful Thing That She Has Done for Me”
3 While Jesus+ was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, reclining at the meal table, a woman came holding an alabaster flask of perfumed oil—pure nard, worth a lot of money. After breaking open the flask, she poured it on his head.
4 Some of those present indignantly said to one another, “ Why has this fragrant oil been wasted?
5 This oil could have been sold for more than a year’s wages+ and the money given to the poor!” And they began to reprimand her harshly.
6 “Leave her alone,” Jesus said. “Why are ᵖyou giving her such a difficult time? It is a very beautiful thing+ that she has done for me.
7 ᵖYou have the poor with you, you see, all the time, and ᵖyou can show them kindness indeed anytime you like. Me, however, ᵖyou have here with you only a short while.+
8 She did what she could. She anointed my body with fragrant oil ahead of time in preparation for my burial.
9 Amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: Wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done, too, will itself be told in memory of her.”
“They Were Thrilled and Promised to Give Him Some Silver Coins”
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests in order to hand Jesus+ over to them.
11 When they heard this, they were thrilled and promised to give him some silver coins.+ So he began watching for a way to hand Jesus+ over at just the right moment.
“This Is My Blood of the Covenant”
12 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread,+ when the lamb used for the Passover meal+ is sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples said to him, “Where would you like us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover meal?”
13 So Jesus+ sent two of his disciples on ahead and said to them, “Go into the city, and ᵖyou will come upon a man carrying this: A jar of water. Accompany him,
14 and whatever house he enters,+ tell the owner+ of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is the dining room+ where I may eat, with my disciples, the Passover meal?” ’
15 He will show ᵖyou a large upstairs room, all arranged and ready, and that’s where you are to make the preparations for us.”
16 So the disciples left and went into the city, and they found things just as Jesus+ had told them. And they prepared the Passover meal.
17 When it was evening, Jesus+ arrived with the Twelve.
18 While they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, “Amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: One of you will betray me—one of you here eating with me.+”
19 The disciples+ became deeply distressed and began saying to him one by one, “Surely you don’t mean me!”+
20 “It is one of the Twelve, my close friend who is about to dip his bread with me into the dish,”+ Jesus+ said to them.
21 “Although the Son of Man must die+ just as it is written about him, woe to that man by means of whom the Son of Man is about to be betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had never been born.”+
22 As they were eating, Jesus+ took some bread and, after giving thanks,+ broke it and gave it to the disciples. “Take it,” he said. “This is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup of wine and, after giving thanks, gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24 “This,” he said, “is my blood of the covenant,+ which is about to be poured out for+ ‘many.’+
25 Amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: I will certainly not drink of the fruit of the vine again+ until that Day when this wine I drink new in the Kingdom of God.”+
26 And after they had sung the second part of the Hallel Psalms,+ they went out to the Mount of Olives.
“You…before the Rooster Crows Twice, Will Disown Me Three Times”
27 Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will fall away.+ For it is written:
“ ‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.’+
28 After I have been raised to life, however, I will go ahead of ᵖyou to Galilee.”
29 Peter declared to him, “Even if everyone else falls away, I will not!”
30 Jesus said to him, “Amen, I solemnly tell ˢyou this: ˢYou, today, on this very night, before the rooster crows twice, will disown me three times.”
31 “Even if I must die with you,” Peter insisted even more strongly, “I will never disown you!” The same thing, moreover, all the others,+ too, themselves kept saying.
“Please Spare Me This Cup of Suffering!”
32 They went to an olive grove+ called Gethsemane. “Sit here while I pray,” Jesus+ said to his disciples.
33 He took Peter and James and John along with him, and he began to experience overwhelming distress and anguish.+
34 “My soul is overcome with sorrow,+ even to the point of death,” he said to them. “Remain here and stay awake.”+
35 And when he had gone on a little farther, he threw himself to the ground and prayed again and again+ that if it were possible, he would be spared the time of suffering appointed for him.
36 He kept saying,+ “Abba! Father! All things are possible for you! Please spare me this cup of suffering!+ Yet not my own will, but yours be done!”+
37 Then he returned and found the disciples+ asleep. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are ˢyou asleep? ˢYou weren’t able to stay awake for even one hour?
38 ᵖYou three stay awake and keep praying for strength to resist temptation.+ Though the spirit is eager, the mortal nature+ is weak.”
39 After he had gone away again, he prayed the same thing.
40 And returning again, he found the disciples+ asleep, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open.+ They didn’t know what to tell him.
41 Then he returned a third time and said to them, “Still asleep and resting? Enough! The appointed time+ has come. Look! The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men.
42 Get up, let’s go. Look! My betrayer is drawing near!”
“Judas, One of the Twelve, Arrived”
43 Just then, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, and with him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the Torah-experts and the elders.
44 Now his betrayer had arranged a signal with them. “The one I greet+ with a kiss,” he had said, “ he is the one. Arrest him and lead him away under guard.”
45 So when Judas+ arrived, he went straight up to Jesus+ and said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him.
46 At that, the others+ seized+ Jesus+ and arrested him.
47 One of those standing nearby, then, drew his sword and struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his ear.
48 Jesus said to them, “Is it as against an insurrectionist+ that ᵖyou have come out with swords and clubs to capture me?
49 Day after day I was with ᵖyou, teaching right there in the temple courts, yet ᵖyou didn’t arrest me. But this has happened so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.”+
50 Then the disciples+ deserted him and fled, all of them.
51 Following along with Jesus+ was a certain young man, who was wearing only his fine linen sleeping garment,+ and some in the crowd+ tried to seize hold of him.
52 Having slipped out+ of the garment, however, the young man+ fled naked.+
“Aren’t You Going to Say Something in Your Own Defense?”
53 They led Jesus to the home of the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the Torah-experts assembled.
54 Peter, meanwhile, followed him at a distance up to and then into the high priest’s courtyard. He was sitting among the Sanhedrin officers and warming himself by the fire.
55 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin kept looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could have put him to death, but they couldn’t find any.
56 Many people, you see, were bringing false charges against Jesus,+ but their testimony didn’t agree.+
57 Then some men stood up and began giving this false testimony against him:
58 “We heard him saying, ‘I will tear down this sanctuary made by human hands, and in three days I will build this: Another sanctuary, not made by human hands.’ ”
59 Yet not even on this point+ did their testimony agree.
60 The high priest stood up in front of everyone and asked Jesus, “Aren’t you going to say something in your own defense? What is this accusation these men are bringing against you?”
61 But Jesus+ remained silent and didn’t say anything in his own defense.
Again the high priest put a question to him. “Are you the Messiah,” he asked, “the Son of the Blessed One?”
62 “I AM,”+ said Jesus, “and ᵖyou will see the Son of Man ‘sitting at the very right hand’+ of the Mighty One and ‘coming with the clouds of heaven.’+”
63 The high priest, then, tearing his clothes in horror, said, “What further need do we have of witnesses?
64 ᵖYou have heard his blasphemy! Exactly what verdict do ᵖyou think he deserves?+”
All of them condemned him as guilty, and deserving of death.
+65 Then some began spitting on him and covering his face and striking him with their fists and saying to him, “Prophesy!” The Sanhedrin officers also took him and beat him.+
“I Don’t Know This Man You’re Talking About!”
66 While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls who worked at the home of the high priest came.
67 When she saw Peter warming himself, she stared at him and said, “ˢYou, too, yourself were with the man from Nazareth, Jesus!”
68 But Peter+ denied it. “I have absolutely no idea what ˢyou’re talking about,” he said. Then he went out to the passageway between the gate and the courtyard,+ and a rooster crowed.
69 The servant girl, when she saw him, began to say again to those standing nearby, “This man is himself one of them.”
70 Peter+ denied it yet again.
A little while later, those standing there began saying to Peter, “ˢYou are most definitely one of them, for you are also a Galilean.”
71 Peter+ began calling down a divine curse on himself and swearing with an oath, “I don’t know this man ᵖyou’re talking about!”
72 Just then, a rooster crowed a second time, and Peter remembered what Jesus had said+ to him: “Before the rooster crows twice, you will disown me three times.” And throwing himself down,+ he wept and wept.+