AJesus, however, was aware of their evil plan, and so he said, "You hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a silver coin for paying the tax!"

They brought him the coin and he asked them, "Whose face and name are these on it?"

"The Emperor?s,"they answered.

So Jesus said to them, "Well, then, pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay to God what belongs to God."

There before the people they could not catch him in a thing, so they kept quiet, amazed at his answer. They left him and went away.

That same day some Sadducees, who say that people will not rise from death, came to Jesus and said, "Teacher, Moses wrote this law for us: 'If a man dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man's brother must marry the widow so they can have children who will be considered the dead man's children.' Now, there were seven brothers who used to live here. The oldest got married and died without having children, so he left his widow to his brother. Then the second one married the woman, and he died without having children. The same thing happened to the third brother, and then to the rest: all seven brothers married the woman and died without having children. Last of all, the woman died. Now, when all the dead rise to life on the day of resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven of them had married her."

Jesus answered them, "How wrong you are! And do you know why? It is because you don't know the Scriptures or God?s power. The men and women of this age marry, but the men and women who are worthy to rise from death and live in the age to come will not then marry. They will be like angels and cannot die. They are the children of God, because they have risen from death. And Moses clearly proves that the dead are raised to life. Haven't you ever read in the book of Moses the passage about the burning bush? There it is written that God said to Moses, ?I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' He is the God of the living, not of the dead, for to him all are alive. You are completely wrong!"

Some of the teachers of the Law spoke up, "A good answer, Teacher!" For they did not dare ask him any more questions. When the crowds heard this they were amazed at his teaching.

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they came together, and one of them, a teacher of the Law, was there who heard the discussion. He saw that Jesus had given the Sadducees a good answer, so he came to trap him with a question. "Teacher," he asked, ^B"which commandment is the most important of all in the Law?"

Jesus replied, "The most important one is this: 'Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second most important commandment is this: 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' The whole law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets depend on these two commandments. There is no other commandment more important than these two."

The teacher of the Law said to Jesus, "Well done, Teacher! It is true, as you say, that only the Lord is God and that there is no other god but he. And you must love God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength; and you must love your neighbor as you love yourself. It is more important to obey these two commandments than to offer on the altar animals and other sacrifices to God."

Jesus noticed how wise his answer was, and so he told him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."

After this nobody dared to ask Jesus any more questions.

As Jesus was teaching in the Temple, some Pharisees gathered together. Jesus asked them, "What do you think about the Messiah? Whose descendant is he?"

"He is David?s descendant," they answered.

"Why, then," Jesus asked, "did the Spirit inspire David to call him 'Lord?' For David himself says in the book of Psalms,

'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit here at my right side
until I put your enemies as a footstool under your feet.'Psalm 110:1

"If, then, David called him 'Lord,' how can the Messiah be David's descendant?"

No one was able to give Jesus any answer.

A large crowd was listening to Jesus gladly. Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples. As all the people listened to him, Jesus said, "Be on your guard against the teachers of the Law, who like to walk around in their long robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplace; who choose the reserved seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts; who take advantage of widows and rob them of their homes, and then make a show of saying long prayers! Their punishment will be all the worse!

"The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees are the authorized interpreters of Moses' Law. So you must obey and follow everything they tell you to do; do not, however, imitate their actions, because they don't practice what they preach. They tie onto people's backs loads that are heavy and hard to carry, yet they aren't willing even to lift a finger to help them carry those loads. They do everything so people will see them. Look at the straps with scripture verses on them which they wear on their foreheads and arms, and notice how large they are. Notice also how long are the tassels of their cloaks! They love to have people call them 'Teacher.' You must not be called 'Teacher,' because you are all equal and have only one Teacher. And you must not call anyone here on earth 'Father,' because you have only the one Father in heaven. Nor should you be called 'Leader,' because your one and only leader is the Messiah. The greatest one among you must be your servant. Whoever makes himself great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be made great."

As Jesus sat near the Temple treasury, he watched the people as they dropped in their money. Many rich men dropped in a lot of money; then a poor widow came along and dropped in two little copper coins, worth about a penny. He called his disciples together and said to them, "I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others. For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all that she had; she gave all she had to live on.

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets, you stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times I wanted to put my arms around all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me! And so your Temple will be abandoned. From now on I assure you that you will not see me again until the time comes when you say, 'God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord.' "

Some of the disciples were talking about the Temple, how beautiful it looked with its fine stones and the gifts offered to God.

Jesus left and was going away from the Temple when his disciples came to him to call his attention to its buildings. One of his disciples said, "Look, Teacher! What wonderful stones and buildings!"

"Yes," he said, "You see these great buildings? You may well look at all these. I tell you this: the time will come when not a single stone here will be left in its place, every one of them will be thrown down."

As Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, across from the Temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew came to him in private. "Teacher," they asked, "tell us when all this will be and tell us what will happen to show that the time has come for all these things to take place, that it is the time for your coming and the end of the age."

Jesus answered, "Watch out, and do not let anyone fool you. Many men, claiming to speak for me, will come and say, 'I am the Messiah!' and, 'The time has come,' and they will fool many people. But don't follow them. Don't be afraid when you hear of wars and revolutions; don't be troubled when you hear the noise of battles close by and news of battles far away. Such things must happen first, but they do not mean that the end is near or has come. Countries will fight each other, kingdoms will attack one another. There will be terrible earthquakes, famines, and plagues everywhere; there will be strange and terrifying things coming from the sky. All these things are like the first pains of childbirth.

Before all these things take place, however, you will be arrested and persecuted. You yourselves must watch out. You will be arrested and taken to court. You will be handed over to be tried in synagogues and be put in prison. You will be beaten in the synagogues, handed over to be punished and be put to death. You will be brought before kings and rulers for my sake. This will be your chance to tell the Good News.

But before the end comes, the gospel must first be preached to all peoples. And when you are arrested and taken to court, make up your minds ahead of time not to worry about how you will defend yourselves. When the time comes, say whatever is then given to you. I will give you such words and wisdom that none of your enemies will be able to refute or contradict what you say. For the words you speak will not be yours; they will come from the Holy Spirit. You will be handed over by your parents, your brothers, your relatives, and your friends; and some of you will be put to death. Men will hand over their own brothers to be put to death; and fathers will do the same to their children. Children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. Many will give up their faith at that time; they will betray one another and hate one another. Then many false prophets will appear and fool many people. Such will be the spread of evil that many people's love will grow cold. But whoever holds out to the end will be saved. But not a single hair from your heads will be lost. Stand firm, and you will save yourselves. And this Good News about the Kingdom will be preached through all the world for a witness to all people; and then the end will come.

"You will see 'The Awful Horror,' of which the prophet Daniel spoke. standing in the holy place where he should not be." (Note to the reader: understand what this means!)

"When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that it will soon be destroyed. Then those who are in Judea must run away to the hills. Someone who is on the roof of a house must not take the time to go down and get any belongings from the house to take along. Someone who is in the field must not go back to the house for a cloak. Those who are in the city must leave, and those who are out in the country must not go into the city. For those will be 'The Days of Punishment,' to make come true all that the Scriptures say. How terrible it will be in those days for women who are pregnant and for mothers with little babies. Pray to God that you will not have to run away during the winter or on a Sabbath! For the trouble of those days will be far worse than any the world has ever known from the very beginning when God created the world until the present time. Nor will there ever be anything like it again. But the Lord has reduced the number of those days; if he had not, nobody would survive. For the sake of his chosen people, however, he has reduced those days. Terrible distress will come upon this land, and God's punishment will fall on this people. Some will be killed by the sword, and others will be taken as prisoners to all countries; and the heathen will trample over Jerusalem until their time is up."

Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. His answer was, "The Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say, 'Look, here it is!' or, 'There it is!'; because the Kingdom of God is within you."

Then he said to the disciples, "The time will come when you will wish you could see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. Then, if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not believe him. Or, if people should tell you, 'Look, he is out in the desert!' don't go there; or if they say, 'Look, he is hiding here!' ' don't believe it. For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear. They will perform great miracles and wonders in order to deceive even God's chosen people, if possible. Be on your guard! I have told you everything ahead of time.

"For the Son of Man will come like the lightning which flashes across the whole sky from the east to the west. But first he must suffer much and be rejected by the people of this day.

"Soon after the trouble of those days, the sun will grow dark, the moon will no longer shine, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers in space will be driven from their courses. On earth whole countries will be in despair, afraid of the roar of the sea and the raging tides. People will faint from fear as they wait for what is coming over the whole earth. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky; and all the peoples of the earth will weep as they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. When these things begin to happen, stand up and raise your heads, because your salvation is near. The great trumpet will sound, and he will send the angels out to the four corners of the earth to gather God's chosen people from one end of the world to the other."

Then Jesus told them this parable. "Think of the fig tree and all the other trees. Let the fig tree teach you a lesson. When its branches become green and tender and it starts putting out leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to begin, ^Cthat the Kingdom of God is about to come. Remember that all these things will happen before the people now living have all died. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

"Be careful not to let yourselves become occupied with too much feasting and drinking and with the worries of this life, or that Day may suddenly catch you like a trap. For it will come upon all people everywhere on earth. Be on watch and pray always that you will have the strength to go safely through all those things that will happen and to stand before the Son of Man.

"No one knows, however, when that day and hour will come, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son; only the Father knows. Be on watch, be alert, for you do not know when the time will come. It will be like a man who goes away from home on a trip and leaves his servants in charge, after giving to each one his own work to do and after telling the doorkeeper to keep watch. Watch, then, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming, it might be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or at sunrise. If he comes suddenly, he must not find you asleep. What I say to you, then, I say to all: Watch!

"The coming of the Son of Man will be like what happened in the time of Noah. In the days before the flood people ate and drank, men and women married, up to the very day Noah went into the boat; yet they did not realize what was happening until the flood came and swept them all away.

"It will be as it was in the time of Lot. Everybody kept on eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. On the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulphur rained down from heaven and killed them all. That is how it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

"On that day the someone who is on the roof of a house must not go down into the house to get his belongings; in the same way anyone who is out in the field must not go back to the house. Remember Lot's wife! Those who try to save their own life will lose it; those who lose their life will save it. On that night, I tell you, there will be two people sleeping in the same bed; one will be taken away, the other will be left behind. At that time two men will be working in the field: one will be taken away, the other will be left behind. Two women will be at a mill grinding meal: one will be taken away, the other will be left behind.

The disciples asked him, "Where, Lord?"

Jesus answered, "Wherever there is a dead body, the vultures will gather.

"Watch out, then, because you do not know what day your Lord will come. If the owner of a house knew the time when the thief would come, you can be sure that he would stay awake and not let the thief break into his house. So then, you also must always be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting him."

"At that time the Kingdom of heaven will be like this. Once there were ten young women who took their oil lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and the other five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any extra oil with them, while the wise ones took containers full of oil for their lamps. The bridegroom was late in coming, so the girls began to nod and fall asleep.

"It was already midnight when the cry rang out, 'Here is the bridegroom! Come and meet him!' The ten girls woke up and trimmed their lamps. Then the foolish ones said to the wise ones, 'Let us have some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.' 'No, indeed,' the wise ones answered, 'there is not enough for you and for us. Go to the store and buy some for yourselves.' So the foolish girls went off to buy some oil, and while they were gone, the bridegroom arrived. The five girls who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was closed.

"Later the other girls arrived. 'Sir, sir! Let us in!' they cried out. 'Certainly not! I don't know you,' the bridegroom answered."

And Jesus concluded, "Watch out, then, because you do not know the day or the hour."

While the people were listening to this, Jesus continued and told them a parable. He was now almost at Jerusalem, and they supposed that the Kingdom of God was just about to appear. So he said, "At that time the Kingdom of heaven will be like this. There was once a man of high rank who was going to a country far away to be made king, after which he planned to come back home. Before he left, he called his servants and put them in charge of his property. He gave to each one according to his ability: to one he gave five thousand gold coins, to another he gave two thousand, and to another he gave one thousand. He told them, 'See what you can earn with this while I am gone.' Then he left on his trip. Now, his own people hated him, and so they sent messengers after him to say, 'We don't want this man to be our king.'

"The servant who had received five thousand coins went at once and invested his money and earned another five thousand. In the same way the servant who had received two thousand coins earned another two thousand. But the servant who had received one thousand coins went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money.

"The man was made king. After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them. At once he ordered his servants to appear before him, in order to find out how much they had earned. The servant who had received five thousand coins came in and handed over the other five thousand. 'You gave me five thousand coins, sir,' he said. 'Look! Here are another five thousand that I have earned.' 'Well done, you good and faithful servant!' said his master. 'You have been faithful in managing small amounts, so I will put you in charge of large amounts and in charge of ten cities. Come on in and share my happiness!' Then the servant who had been given two thousand coins came in and said, 'You gave me two thousand coins, sir. Look! Here are another two thousand that I have earned.' 'Well done, you good and faithful servant!' said his master. 'You have been faithful in managing small amounts so I will put you in charge of large amounts and in charge of five cities.' Come on in and share my happiness!' Then the servant who had received one thousand coins came in and said, 'Sir, I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You reap harvests where you did not plant, and gather crops where you did not scatter seed. I was afraid, so I went off and hid your money in the ground, in a handkerchief. Look! Here is what belongs to you.' 'You bad and lazy servant!' his master said. 'I will use your own words to condemn you! You knew, did you, that I reap harvests where I did not plant, and gather crops where I did not scatter seed? Well, then, why didn't you put my money in the bank'? Then I would have received it back with interest when I returned. Then he said to those standing there, 'Take the money away from him and give it to the one who has ten thousand coins.' But they said to him, 'Sir, he already has ten thousand coins.' 'I tell you,' he replied, 'to every person who has something, even more will be given, and he will have more than enough; but the person who has nothing, even the little he has will be taken away from him. As for this useless servant, throw him outside in the darkness; there he will cry and gnash his teeth. Now, as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and kill them in my presence!'

"When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him, he will sit on his royal throne, and the people of all the nations will be gathered before him. Then he will divide them into two groups, just as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats. He will put the righteous people at his right and the others at his left. Then the King will say to the people on his right, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father! Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world. I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me.? The righteous will then answer him , 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink' When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me!'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Away from me, you that are under God's curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels! I was hungry but you would not feed me, thirsty but you would not give me drink; I was a stranger but you would not welcome me in your homes, naked but you would not clothe me; I was sick and in prison but you would not take care of me.' Then they will answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and we would not help you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me.' These, then, will be sent off to eternal punishment; but the righteous will go to eternal life."

When Jesus had finished teaching all these things, he said to his disciples, "In two days, as you know, it will be the Passover Festival, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."

Then the chief priests and the Jewish elders met together in the palace of Caiaphas, the High Priest, and made plans to arrest Jesus secretly and put him to death. "We must not do it during the festival," they said, "or the people will riot."

Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, a Pharisee, a man who suffered from a dreaded skin disease. Jesus went to his house and sat down to eat. In that town was a woman who lived a sinful life. She heard that Jesus was eating in the Pharisee?s house, so she brought an alabaster jar full of expensive perfume made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus' head. She stood behind Jesus, by his feet, crying and wetting his feet with her tears. Then she dried his feet with her hair, kissed them, and poured the perfume on them. When the Pharisee saw this, he said to himself, "If this man really were a prophet, he would know who this woman is who is touching him; he would know what kind of sinful life she lives!"

Jesus spoke up and said to him, 'Simon, I have something to tell you.'

"Yes, Teacher," he said, "tell me."

"There were two men who owed money to a moneylender," Jesus began. "One owed him five hundred silver coins, and the other owed him fifty. Neither of them could pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Which one, then, will love him more?"

"I suppose," answered Simon, "that it would be the one who was forgiven more."

"You are right," said Jesus. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your home, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You did not welcome me with a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing my feet since I came. You provided no olive oil for my head, but she has covered my feet with perfume. I tell you, then, the great love she has shown proves that her many sins have been forgiven. But whoever has been forgiven little shows only a little love."

Then Jesus said to the woman, "Your sins are forgiven."

The others sitting at the table began to say to themselves, "Who is this, who even forgives sins?"

But Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you, go in peace."

The disciples and some of the people there became angry and said to one another, "What was the use of wasting the perfume? It could have been sold for more than three hundred silver coins and the money given to the poor!" And they criticized her harshly.

Jesus knew what they were saying, and so he said to them, "Leave her alone! Why are you bothering this woman? It is a fine and beautiful thing that she has done for me. You will always have poor people with you, and any time you want to, you can help them. But you will not always have me. She did what she could; she poured perfume on my body to prepare it ahead of time for burial. Now, I assure you that wherever this gospel is preached all over the world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."

Then Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples. So Judas went off and spoke with the chief priests and the officers of the Temple guard and asked, "What will you give me if I betray Jesus to you?" They were pleased to hear what he had to say. They counted out thirty silver coins and gave them to him. Judas agreed to it and started looking for a good chance to hand Jesus over to them without the people knowing about it.

The day came during the Festival of Unleavened Bread when the lambs for the Passover meal were to be killed. Jesus sent Peter and John with these instructions, "Go and get the Passover meal ready for us to eat."

"Where do you want us to get it ready for you?" they asked him.

He answered, "As you go into the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house: 'The Teacher says to you, Where is the room where my disciples and I will eat the Passover meal?' He will show you a large furnished room upstairs, where you will get everything ready."

They went off and found everything just as Jesus had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

It was now the day before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. He had always loved those in the world who were his own, and he loved them to the very end.

When the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table with the apostles.

The Devil had already put into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, the thought of betraying Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had given him complete power; he knew that he had come from God and was going to God. So he rose from the table, took off his outer garment, and tied a towel round his waist. Then he poured some water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel round his waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Are you going to wash my feet, Lord?"

Jesus answered him, "You do not understand now what I am doing, but you will understand later."

Peter declared, "Never at any time will you wash my feet!"

"If I do not wash your feet," Jesus answered, "you will no longer be my disciple."

Simon Peter answered, "Lord, do not wash only my feet, then! Wash my hands and head, too!"

Jesus said, "Those who have taken a bath are completely clean and do not have to wash themselves, except for their feet. All of you are clean, all except one." (Jesus already knew who was going to betray him; that is why he said, "All of you, except one, are clean.")

After Jesus had washed their feet, he put his outer garment back on and returned to his place at the table. "Do you understand what I have just done to you?" he asked. "You call me Teacher and Lord, and it is right that you do so, because that is what I am. I, your Lord and Teacher, have just washed your feet. You, then, should wash one another?s feet. I have set an example for you, so that you will do just what I have done for you. I am telling you the truth: no slaves are greater than their master, and no messengers are greater than the one who sent them. Now that you know this truth; how happy you will be if you put it into practice!

"I am not talking about all of you; I know those I have chosen. But the scripture must come true that says,

?The man who shared my food turned against me.? FP Ps. 41:9

"I tell you this now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe that ?I Am Who I Am?. I am telling you the truth: whoever receives anyone I send receives me also; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me."

After Jesus had said this, he was deeply troubled and declared openly, "I am telling you the truth: one of you is going to betray me. But, look! The one who betrays me is here at the table with me! The Son of Man will die as God has decided, but how terrible for that man who betrays him! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born!" The disciples looked at one another, completely puzzled about whom he meant.

Then they began to ask among themselves which one of them it could be who was going to do this. The disciples were upset and began to ask him, one after the other, "Surely you don?t mean me, do you?"

One of the disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was sitting next to Jesus. Simon Peter motioned to him and said, "Ask him whom he is talking about."

So that disciple moved closer to Jesus? side and asked, "Who is it, Lord?"

Jesus answered, "I will dip the bread in the sauce and give it to him; he is the man." So he took a piece of bread, dipped it, and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot

Judas, the traitor, spoke up. "Surely, Teacher, you don?t mean me?" he asked.

Jesus answered, "So you say."

As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "Hurry and do what you must!" None of the others at the table understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas was in charge of the money bag, some of the disciples thought that Jesus had told him to go and buy what they needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor.

Judas accepted the bread and went out at once. It was night.

After Judas had left, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man?s glory is revealed; now God?s glory is revealed through him. And if God?s glory is revealed through him, then God will reveal the glory of the Son of Man in himself, and he will do so at once. My children, I shall not be with you very much longer. You will look for me; but I tell you now what I told the Jewish authorities, ?You cannot go where I am going.? And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples."

He said to them, "I have wanted so much to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer! For I tell you, I will never eat it until it is given its full meaning in the Kingdom of God."

While they were eating, Jesus took a piece of bread, gave a prayer of thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. "Take and eat it," he said; "this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in memory of me."

Then he took a cup, gave thanks to God, and said, "Take this and share it among yourselves." "Drink it, all of you," he said, "this is my blood, which seals God?s covenant, my blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." He handed it to them; and they all drank from it. ^AI tell you, I will never again drink this wine until the day I drink the new wine with you in my Father?s Kingdom."

An argument broke out among the disciples as to which one of them should be thought of as the greatest. Jesus said to them, "The kings of the pagans have power over their people, and the rulers claim the title ?Friends of the People.? But this is not the way it is with you; rather, the greatest one among you must be like the youngest, and the leader must be like the servant. Who is greater, the one who sits down to eat or the one who serves? The one who sits down, of course. But I am among you as one who serves.

You have stayed with me all through my trials; and just as my Father has given me the right to rule, so I will give you the same right. You will eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and you will sit on thrones to rule over the twelve tribes of Israel."

Then Jesus said to them, "This very night all of you will run away and leave me, for the scripture says, ?God will kill the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.? But after I am raised to life, I will go to Galilee ahead of you."

"Where are you going, Lord?" Simon Peter asked him.

"You cannot follow me now where I am going," answered Jesus; "but later you will follow me. Simon, Simon! Listen! Satan has received permission to test all of you, to separate the good from the bad, as a farmer separates the wheat from the chaff. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you turn back to me, you must strengthen your brothers."

"Lord, why can?t I follow you now?" asked Peter. "I am ready to go to prison with you and to die with you! I will never leave you, even though all the rest do!"

Jesus answered, "Are you really ready to die for me? I am telling you the truth: before the rooster crows two times tonight, you will say three times that you do not know me."

Peter answered even more strongly, "I will never say that, even if I have to die with you!"

And all the other disciples said the same thing.

"Do not be worried and upset," Jesus told them. "Believe in God, and believe also in me. There are many rooms in my Father?s house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so. And after I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to myself, so that you will be where I am. You know the way that leads to the place where I am going."

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; so how can we know the way to get there?"

Jesus answered him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no ones goes to the Father except by me. Now that you have known me," he said to them, "you will know my Father also, and from now on you do know him and you have seen him."

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father; that is all we need."

Jesus answered, "For a long time I have been with you all; yet you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Why, then, do you say, ?Show us the Father?? Do you not believe, Philip, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I have spoken to you," Jesus said to his disciples, "do not come from me. The Father, who remains in me, does his own work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If not, believe because of the things I do. I am telling you the truth: those who believe in me will do what I do?yes, they will do even greater things, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father?s glory will be shown through the Son. If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.

"If you love me, you will obey my commandments. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is in you.

"When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you. In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me; and because I live, you also will live. When that day comes, you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me, just as I am in you.

"Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. My Father will love those who love me; I too will love them and reveal myself to them."

Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "Lord, how can it be that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?"

Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and my Father and I will come to them and live with them. Those who do not love me do not obey my teaching. And the teaching you have heard is not mine, but comes from the Father, who sent me.

"I have told you this while I am still with you. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you.

"Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid. You heard me say to you, ?I am leaving, but I will come back to you.? If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for he is greater than I. I have told you this now before it all happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe. I cannot talk with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father; that is why I do everything as he commands me.

"Come, let us go from this place." Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.

"I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener. He breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit. You have been made clean already by the teaching I have given to you. Remain united to me, and I will remain united to you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it can do so only if it remains in the vine. In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.

"I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me. Those who do not remain in me are thrown out like a branch and dry up; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, where they are burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it. My Father?s glory is shown by your bearing much fruit; and in this way you become my disciples. I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father?s commands and remain in his love.

"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them. And you are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father. You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. This, then, is what I command you: love one another.

"If the world hates you, just remember that it has hated me first. If you belonged to the world, then the world would love you as its own. But I chose you from this world, and you do not belong to it; that is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ?Slaves are not greater than their master.? If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too. But they will do all this to you because you are mine; for they do not know the one who sent me. They would not have been guilty of sin if I had not come and spoken to them; as it is, they no longer have any excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. They would not have been guilty of sin if I had not done among them the things that no one else ever did; as it is, they have seen what I did, and they hate both me and my Father. This, however, was bound to happen so that what is written in their Law may come true: ?They hated me for no reason at all.?

"The Helper will come ? the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God and who comes from the Father. I will send him to you from the Father, and he will speak about me. And you, too, will speak about me, because you have been with me from the very beginning.

"I have told you this, so that you will not give up your faith. You will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time will come when those who kill you will think that by doing this they are serving God. People will do these things to you because they have not known either the Father or me. But I have told you this, so that when the time comes for them to do these things, you will remember what I told you.

Work of the Holy Spirit

"I did not tell you these things at the beginning, for I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me where I am going. And now that I have told you, your hearts are full of sadness. But I am telling you the truth: it is better for you that I go away, because if I do not go, the Helper will not come to you. But if I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove to the people of the world that they are wrong about sin and about what is right and about God?s judgment. They are wrong about sin, because they do not believe in me; they are wrong about what is right, because I am going to the Father and you will not see me any more; and they are wrong about judgment, because the ruler of this world has already been judged.

"I have much more to tell you, but now it would be too much for you to bear. When, however, the Spirit comes, who reveals the truth about God, he will lead you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own authority, but he will speak of what he hears and tell you of things to come. He will give me glory, because he will take what I say and tell it to you. All that my Father has is mine; that is why I said that the Spirit will take what I give him and tell it to you."

Sadness and Gladness

"In a little while you will not see me any more, and then a little while later you will see me."

Some of his disciples asked among themselves, "What does this mean? He tells us that in a little while we will not see him, and then a little while later we will see him?; and he also says, ?It is because I am going to the Father.? What does this ?a little while? mean? We don?t know what he is talking about!"

Jesus knew that they wanted to question him, so he said to them, "I said, ?In a little while you will not see me, and then a little while later you will see me.? Is this what you are asking about among yourselves? I am telling you the truth: you will cry and weep, but the world will be glad; you will be sad, but your sadness will turn into gladness. When a woman is about to give birth, she is sad because her hour of suffering has come; but when the baby is born, she forgets her suffering, because she is happy that a baby has been born into the world. That is how it is with you: now you are sad, but I will see you again, and your hearts will be filled with gladness, the kind of gladness that no one can take away from you.

"When that day comes, you will not ask me for anything. I am telling you the truth: the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your happiness may be complete.

Victory over the World

"I have used figures of speech to tell you of these things. But the time will come when I will not use figures of speech, but will speak to you plainly about the Father. When that day comes, you will ask him in my name; and I do not say that I will ask him on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you. He loves you because you love me and have believed that I came from God. I did come from the Father and I came into the world; and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father."

Then his disciples said to him, "Now you are speaking plainly, without using figures of speech. We know now that you know everything; you do not need to have someone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God."

Jesus answered them, "Do you believe now? The time is coming, and is already here, when all of you will be scattered, each of you to your own home, and I will be left all alone. But I am not really alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you will have peace by being united to me. The world will make you suffer. But be brave! I have defeated the world!"

Jesus Prays for Disciples

After Jesus finished saying this, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your Son, so that the Son may give glory to you. For you gave him authority over all people, so that he might give eternal life to all those you gave him. And eternal life means to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I have shown your glory on earth; I have finished the work you gave me to do. Father! Give me glory in your presence now, the same glory I had with you before the world was made.

"I have made you known to those you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me. They have obeyed your word, and now they know that everything you gave me comes from you. I gave them the message that you gave me, and they received it; they know that it is true that I came from you, and they believe that you sent me.

"I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those you gave me, se of their message. I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be one, so that the world will believe that you sent me. I gave them the same glory you gave me, so that they may be one, just as you and I are one: I in them and you in me, so that they may be completely one, in order that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them as you love me.

"Father! You have given them to me, and I want them to be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, the glory you gave me; for you loved me before the world was made. Righteous Father! The world does not know you, but I know you, and these know that you sent me . I made you known to them, and I will continue to do so, in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and so that I also may be in them."

Purse, Bag, and Sword

Then Jesus asked his disciples, "When I sent you out that time without purse, bag, or shoes, did you lack anything?"

"Not a thing," they answered.

"But now," Jesus said, "whoever has a purse or a bag must take it; and whoever does not have a sword must sell his coat and buy one. For I tell you that the scripture which says,

?He shared the fate of criminals,?
FP Isa. 53:12

must come true about me, because what was written about me is coming true."

The disciples said, "Look! Here are two swords, Lord!"

"That is enough!" he replied.

Jesus Prays in Gethsemane

Jesus left the city and went, as he usually did, across Kidron Brook, to the Mount of Olives, to a place called Gethsemane. When he arrived at the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation. Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John. Distress, grief and anguish came over him, and he said to them, "The sorrow in my heart is so great that it almost crushes me. Stay here and keep watch with me."

Then he went off from them about the distance of a stone?s throw, and >threw himself face downward on the ground, and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, take this cup of suffering from me! Not my will, however, but your will be done." An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. In great anguish he prayed even more fervently; his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Then he returned to the three disciples and found them asleep; and he said to Peter, "How is it that you three were not able to keep watch with me for even one hour?" And he said to them, "Keep watch, and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Once more Jesus went away and prayed, "My Father, if this cup of suffering cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done." He returned once more and found the disciples asleep; they could not keep their eyes open. ^BAnd they did not know what to say to him.

Again Jesus left them, went away, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Rising from his prayer, he went back to the disciples and found them asleep, worn out by their grief. He said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! Get up, and pray that you will not fall into temptation. Look! The hour has come for the Son of Man to be handed over to the power of sinful men. Get up, let us go. There was a garden in that place, and Jesus and his disciples went in.

"Look, here is the man who is betraying me!"

Arrest of Jesus

Jesus was still speaking when Judas, one of the twelve disciples, arrived. Judas, the traitor, knew where the garden was, because many times Jesus had met there with his disciples. So Judas went to the garden, taking with him a group of Roman soldiers, and some Temple guards sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees; they were armed and carried lanterns and torches. The traitor had given the crowd a signal: "The man I kiss is the one you want. Arrest him and take him away under guard."

As soon as Judas arrived he went up to Jesus and said, "Peace be with you, Teacher," and kissed him. But Jesus said, "Judas, is it with a kiss that you betray the Son of Man? Be quick about it, friend!"

Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward and asked them, "Who is it you are looking for?"

"Jesus of Nazareth," they answered.

"I am he," he said.

Judas, the traitor, was standing there with them. When Jesus said to them, "I am he," they moved back and fell to the ground. Again Jesus asked them, "Who is it you are looking for?"

"Jesus of Nazareth," they said.

"I have already told you that I am he," Jesus said. "If, then, you are looking for me, let these others go." (He said this so that what he had said might come true, "Father, I have not lost even one of those you gave me.")

Then they came up, arrested Jesus, and held him tight.

When the disciples who were with Jesus saw what was going to happen, they asked, "Shall we use our swords, Lord?"

Simon Peter, who had a sword drew it and struck the High Priest?s slave, cutting off his right ear. The name of the slave was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, "Enough of this! Put your sword back in its place! All who take the sword will die by the sword. Don?t you know that I could call on my Father for help and at once he would send me more than twelve armies of angels? But in that case, how could the Scriptures come true which say that this is what must happen? Do you think that I will not drink the cup of suffering which my Father has given me?" He touched the man?s ear and healed him.

Then Jesus said to the chief priests and the officers of the Temple guard and the elders who had come there to get him, "Did you have to come with swords and clubs to capture me, as though I were an outlaw? Every day I sat down and taught in the Temple, and you did not arrest me. But all this has happened in order to make come true what the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. But this is your hour to act, when the power of darkness rules."

Then all the disciples left him and ran away.

A certain young man, dressed only in a linen cloth, was following Jesus. They tried to arrest him, but he ran away naked, leaving the cloth behind.

Jesus Before Annas

Then the Roman soldiers with their commanding officer and the Jewish guards arrested Jesus, tied him up, and took him first to Annas. He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jewish authorities that it was better that one man die for all the people.

The High Priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. Jesus answered, "I have always spoken publicly to everyone; all my teaching was done in the synagogues and in the Temple, where all the people come together. I have never said anything in secret. Why, then, do you question me? Question the people who heard me. Ask them what I told them ? they know what I said."

When Jesus said this, one of the guards there slapped him and said, "How dare you talk like that to the High Priest!"

Jesus answered him, "If I have said anything wrong, tell everyone here what it was. But if I am right in what I have said, why do you hit me?"

Then Annas sent him, still tied up, to Caiaphas the High Priest.

Peter Denies Jesus

Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That other disciple was well known to the High Priest, so he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the High Priest?s house, while Peter stayed outside by the gate. Then the other disciple went back out, spoke to the girl at the gate and brought Peter inside. The girl at the gate said to Peter, "Aren?t you also one of the disciples of that man? You, too, were with Jesus of Galilee."

But he denied it in front of them all. "I don?t know...I don?t understand what you are talking about. Woman, I don?t even know Him!" he answered, and went out into the passageway to the entrance of the courtyard. Just then a rooster crowed.

It was cold, so the servants and guards had built a charcoal fire and were standing around it, warming themselves. So Peter went over and stood with them, warming himself.

The servant girl saw him there and began to repeat to the bystanders, "He is one of them! He was with Jesus of Nazareth."

After a little while a man noticed Peter and insisted strongly, "You are one of them, too! After all, the way you speak gives you away!"

Peter denied it and answered, "No, I am not. I swear that I don?t know that man!"

One of the High Priest?s slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, spoke up. "Didn?t I see you with him in the garden?" he asked.

Then Peter said, "I swear that I am telling the truth! May God punish me if I am not! I do not know the man you are talking about!"

At once, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed a second time. The Lord turned around and looked straight at Peter and Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, "Before the rooster crows two times you will say three times that you do not know me." Peter went out and wept bitterly.

Jesus Before the Council

When day came, the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law met together, and Jesus was brought before the Council.

Peter went into the courtyard and sat down with the guards to see how it would all come out.

The chief priests and the whole council tried to find some false evidence against Jesus in order to put him to death; but they could not find any. Many witnesses told lies against Jesus, but their stories did not agree.

Finally two men stepped up and told this lie against Jesus, "We heard him say, ?I will tear down this Temple which men have made, and after three days I will build one that is not made by men.? " Not even they, however, could make their stories agree.

The High Priest stood up in front of them all and questioned Jesus, "Have you no answer to the accusation they bring against you?"

But Jesus kept quiet and would not say a word. Again the High Priest questioned him, "In the name of the living God I now put you under oath: Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed God?"

He answered, "If I tell you, you will not believe me; and if I ask you a question, you will not answer."

They all said, "Are you, then, the Son of God?"

"I am," answered Jesus, "but I tell all of you: from this time on you will all see the Son of Man seated at the right side of the Almighty and coming on the clouds of heaven!"

At this the High Priest tore his clothes and said, "Blasphemy! We don?t need any more witnesses! You have just heard his blasphemy! What do you think? What is your decision?"

They all voted against him: he was guilty and should be put to death.

CThe men who were guarding Jesus made fun of him and beat him. ^BSome of them began to spit on Jesus, and they blindfolded him and hit him. ^A"Prophesy for us, Messiah! ^BGuess who hit you!" they said. ^CAnd they said many other insulting things to him. ^BAnd the guards took him and slapped him.

Jesus Taken to Pilate

Early in the morning all the chief priests and the elders made their plans against Jesus to put him to death. They put him in chains, led him from Caiaphas? house to the governor?s palace and handed him over to Pilate, the Roman governor. The Jewish authorities did not go inside the palace, for they wanted to keep themselves ritually clean, in order to be able to eat the Passover meal. So Pilate went outside to them and asked, "What do you accuse this man of?"

Their answer was, "We would not have brought him to you if he had not committed a crime. We caught this man misleading our people, telling them not to pay taxes to the Emperor and claiming that he himself is the Messiah, a king."

Pilate said to them, "Then you yourselves take him and try him according to your own law."

They replied, "We are not allowed to put anyone to death." (This happened in order to make come true what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he would die.)

Pilate went back into the palace and called Jesus. "Are you the king of the Jews?" he asked him.

Jesus answered, "So you say. Does this question come from you or have others told you about me?"

Pilate replied, "Do you think I am a Jew? It was your own people and the chief priests who handed you over to me. What have you done?"

Jesus said, "My kingdom does not belong to this world; if my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. No, my kingdom does not belong here!"

So Pilate asked him, "Are you a king, then?"

Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for this one purpose, to speak about the truth. Whoever belongs to the truth listens to me."

"And what is truth?" Pilate asked.

But Jesus refused to answer a single word.

The chief priests were accusing Jesus of many things, so Pilate questioned him again, "Aren?t you going to answer? Listen to all their accusations!"

But Jesus refused to answer a single word, with the result that the Governor was greatly surprised."

Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, "I find no reason to condemn this man."

But they insisted even more strongly, "With his teaching he is starting a riot among the people all through Judea. He began in Galilee and now has come here."

Jesus before Herod

When Pilate heard this he asked, "Is this man a Galilean?" When he learned that Jesus was from the region ruled by Herod, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. Herod was very pleased when he saw Jesus, because he had heard about him and had been wanting to see him for a long time. He was hoping to see Jesus perform some miracle. So Herod asked Jesus many questions, but Jesus made no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the Law stepped forward and made strong accusations against Jesus. Herod and his soldiers made fun of Jesus and treated him with contempt; then they put a fine robe on him and sent him back to Pilate. On that very day Herod and Pilate became friends; before this they had been enemies.

Jesus Sentenced to Death

Pilate called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people, and said to them, "You brought this man to me and said that he was misleading the people. Now, I have examined him here in your presence, and I have not found him guilty of any of the crimes you accuse him of. Nor did Herod find him guilty, for he sent him back to us. There is nothing this man has done to deserve death. So I will have him whipped and let him go.

At every Passover Festival the Roman governor was in the habit of setting free any one prisoner the crowd asked for. At that time there was a well-known prisoner named Jesus Barabbas. (Barabbas had been put in prison for a riot that had taken place in the city, and for murder.)

Pilate wanted to set Jesus free, so when the crowd gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to set free for you? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus called the Messiah?" He knew very well that the Jewish authorities had handed Jesus over to him because they were jealous.

While Pilate was sitting in the judgment hall, his wife sent him a message: "Have nothing to do with that innocent man, because in a dream last night I suffered much on account of him."

The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask Pilate to set Barabbas free and have Jesus put to death. But Pilate asked the crowd, "Which one of these two do you want me to set free for you?"

"Barabbas!" they answered.

"What, then, shall I do with Jesus called the Messiah?" Pilate asked them.

"Crucify him!" they all answered.

But Pilate asked, "What crime has he committed?"

Then they started shouting at the top of their voices, "Crucify him! Set Barrabas free for us!"

Then Pilate?s soldiers took Jesus inside the courtyard of the governor?s palace, and the whole company gathered around him. They stripped off his clothes and put a scarlet (purple) robe on him.

Then they made a crown out of thorny branches and placed it on his head, and put a stick in his right hand; then they knelt before him and made fun of him. "Long live the King of the Jews!" they said. They spat on him, and took the stick and hit him over the head.

Pilate went back out once more and said to the crowd, "Look, I will bring him out here to you to let you see that I cannot find any reason to condemn him." So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple (scarlet) robe. Pilate said to them, "Look! Here is the man!"

When the chief priests and the Temple guards saw him, they shouted, " Crucify him! Crucify him!"

Pilate said to them, "You take him, then, and crucify him. I find no reason to condemn him."

The crowd answered back, "We have a law that says he ought to die, because he claimed to be the Son of God."

When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. He wnet back into the palace and asked Jesus, "Where do you come from?"

But Jesus did not answer. Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Remember, I have the authority to set you free and also to have you crucified."

Jesus answered, "You have authority over me only because it was given to you by God. So the man who handed me over to you is guilty of a worse sin."

DWhen Pilate heard this, he tried to find a way to set Jesus free. But the crowd shouted back, "If you set him free, that means that you are not the Emperor?s friend! Anyone who claims to be a king is a rebel against the Emperor!"

When Pilate heard these words, he took Jesus outside and sat down on the judge?s seat in the place called "The Stone Pavement." (In Hebrew the name is "Gabbatha.") It was then almost noon of the day before the Passover. Pilate said to the people, "Here is your king!"

They shouted back, "Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!"

Pilate asked them, "Do you want me to crucify your king?"

The chief priests answered, "The only king we have is the Emperor!"

When Pilate saw it was no use to go on, but that a riot might break out, he took some water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, "I am not responsible for the death of this man! This is your doing!"

The whole crowd answered, "Let the responsibility for his death fall on us and on our children!"

When they had finished, they took the robe off and put his own clothes back on him. Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.

Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he set Barabbas free for them, the man they wanted, the one who had been put in prison for riot and murder.

Death of Judas

When Judas, the traitor, learned that Jesus had been condemned, he repented and took back the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. "I have sinned by betraying an innocent man to death!" he said.

"What do we care about that?" they answered. "That is your business!"

Judas threw the coins down in the Temple and left; then he went off and hanged himself.

The chief priests picked up the coins and said, "This is blood money, and it is against our Law to put it in the Temple treasury." After reaching an agreement about it, they used the money to buy Potter?s Field, as a cemetery for foreigners. That is why that field is called "Field of Blood" to this very day.

Then what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true,

"They took the thirty silver coins, the amount the people of Israel had agreed to pay for him, and used the money to buy the potter?s field, as the Lord commanded me."
FP Zech. 11:12, 13

Jesus Nailed to the Cross

So they took charge of Jesus. He went out, carrying his cross, and as they were going, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon, ( the father of Alexander and Rufus,) who was coming into the city from the country. They seized him, put the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus.

A large crowd of people followed him; among them were some women who were weeping and wailing for him. Jesus turned to them and said, "Women of Jerusalem! Don?t cry for me, but for yourselves and your children. For the days are coming when people will say, ?How lucky are the women who never had children, who never bore babies, who never nursed them!? That will be the time when people will say to the mountains, ?Fall on us!? and to the hills, ?Hide us!? For if such things as these are done when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"

Two other men, both of them criminals, were also led out to be put to death with Jesus.

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INSIGHT: Some manuscripts include: (In this way the scripture came true which says, "He was included with criminals.")

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They took Jesus to a place called Golgotha, which means "The Place of the Skull." There they tried to give him wine mixed with a drug called myrrh, but after tasting it, Jesus would not drink it. There they crucified him and the two criminals, one on his right and the other on his left.

Jesus said, "Forgive them, Father! They don?t know what they are doing."

It was nine o?clock in the morning when they crucified him.

Pilate wrote a notice and had it put on the cross. "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," is what he wrote. Many people read it, because the place where Jesus was crucified was not far from the city. The notice was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. The chief priests said to Pilate, "Do not write ?The King of the Jews,? but rather, ?This man said, I am the King of the Jews.? "

Pilate answered, "What I have written stays written."

After the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier. They also took the robe, which was made of one piece of woven cloth, without any seams in it. The soldiers said to one another, "Let?s not tear it; let?s throw dice to see who will get it." This happened to make the scripture come true:

"They divided my clothes among themselves, and gambled for my robe."FP Ps. 22:18

And this is what the soldiers did. After that they sat there and watched him.

People passing by shook their heads and hurled insults at Jesus: "Aha!You were going to tear down the Temple and build it back up in three days! Save yourself if you are God?s Son! Come on down from the cross!"

In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the Law and the elders made fun of him. "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah whom God has chosen! Isn?t he the king of Israel? If he will come down off the cross now, we will believe in him! He trusts in God and claims to be God?s Son. Well, then, let us see if God wants to save him now!"

The soldiers also made fun of him; they came up to him and offered him cheap wine, and said, "Save yourself if you are the king of the Jews!"

One of the criminals hanging there hurled insults at him: "Aren?t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!"

The other one, however, rebuked him, saying, "Don?t you fear God? You received the same sentence he did. Ours, however, is only right, because we are getting what we deserve for what we did; but he has done no wrong." And he said to Jesus, "Remember me, Jesus, when you come as King!"

Jesus said to him, "I promise you that today you will be in Paradise with me."

Standing close to Jesus? cross were his mother, his mother?s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, "He is your son."

Then he said to the disciple, "She is your mother."

From that time the disciple took her to live in his home.

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INSIGHT: Crucifixion caused intense suffering. Severe local inflammation produced traumatic fever, which was aggravated by the exposure to the heat of the sun, the strained position of the body and insufferable thirst. The wounds swelled about the rough nails and the torn and lacerated tendons and nerves caused excruciating agony. The arteries of the head and stomach were surcharged with blood and a terrific throbbing headache ensued. Tetanus not rarely supervened and the rigors of the attending convulsions would tear at the wounds and add to the burden of the pain, till at last the bodily forces were exhausted and the victim sank to unconsciousness and death. Victims seldom died before thirty-six hours had passed. Jesus died within six hours, thus causing amazement among the people.

Quoted from The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia.

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Death of Jesus

It was about twelve o?clock when the sun stopped shining and darkness covered the whole country until three o?clock. At three o?clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why did you abandon me?"

Some of the people standing there heard him and said, "He is calling for Elijah!" One of them ran up at once, took a sponge, soaked it in cheap wine, put it on the end of a stick, and tried to make him drink it.

But the others said, "Wait, let us see if Elijah is coming to save him!"

Jesus knew that by now everything had been completed; and in order to make the Scripture come true he said,

"I am thirsty."
FP Ps. 69:21

A bowl was there, full of cheap wine; so a sponge was soaked in the wine, put on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted up to his lips. Jesus took the wine and said, "It is finished!"

Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Father! In your hands I place my spirit!" Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Then the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split apart, the graves broke open, and many of God?s people who had died were raised to life. They left the graves; and after Jesus rose from death, they went into the Holy City, where many people saw them.

The army officer saw what had happened, and he praised God, saying, "Certainly he was a good man!" ^AWhen the soldiers with him who were watching Jesus saw the earthquake and everything else that happened, they were terrified and said, "He really was the Son of God!"

When the people who had gathered there to watch the spectacle saw what had happened, they all went back home, beating their breasts in sorrow. All those who knew Jesus personally, including the women who had followed him from Galilee and helped him stood at a distance to watch.

Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joseph, the wife of Zebedee, and Salome.

Jesus? Side Pierced

Then the Jewish authorities asked Pilate to allow them to break the legs of the men who had been crucified, and to take the bodies down from the crosses. They requested this because it was Friday, and they did not want the bodies to stay on the crosses on the Sabbath, since the coming Sabbath was especially holy. So the soldiers went and broke the legs of the first man and then of the other man who had been crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus they saw that he was already dead, so they did not break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, plunged his spear into Jesus? side, and at once blood and water poured out.

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INSIGHT: "...blood and water poured out..." This phenomena could only happen if there was a rupture of the heart as a consequence of supreme mental agony and sorrow. Dr. Walshe, professor of medicine in University College, London, one of the greatest authorities on the disease of the heart, says that a "piercing shriek" is always uttered immediately before the end and death is instantaneous.

Quoted from The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia.

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(The one who saw this happen has spoken of it, so that you also may believe. What he said is true, and he knows that he speaks the truth.) This was done to make the scripture come true:

"Not one of his bones will be broken." FP Psalm 34:20

And there is another scripture that says,

"People will look at him whom they pierced." FP Zech. 12:10

Burial of Jesus

It was toward evening when Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea, arrived. He was a good and honorable man, a respected member of the Council, who was waiting for the coming of the Kingdom of God. Although a member of the Council, he had not agreed with their decision and action. (Joseph was a follower of Jesus, but in secret, because he was afraid of the Jewish authorities.) It was Preparation day (that is, the day before the Sabbath), so Joseph went in boldly into the presence of Pilate and asked him for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead. He called the army officer and asked him if Jesus had been dead a long time. After hearing the officer?s report, Pilate told Joseph he could have the body. Pilate gave orders for the body to be given to Joseph.

Nicodemus, who at first had gone to see Jesus at night, went with Joseph, taking with him about one hundred pounds of spices, a mixture of myrrh and aloes. Joseph bought a linen sheet. ^DThe two men took Jesus? body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices according to the Jewish custom of preparing a body for burial. There was a garden in the place where Jesus had been put to death, and in it there was a new tomb which Joseph had just recently dug out of solid rock, where no one had ever been buried. Since it was the day before the Sabbath and because the tomb was close by, they placed Jesus? body there. Then Joseph rolled a large stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.

The women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, (the mother of Joseph), who had followed Jesus from Galilee went with Joseph and saw the tomb and how Jesus? body was placed in it. Then they went back home and prepared the spices and ointments for the body.