1: When Jesus finished saying these things, he told his disciples,
2: "You know that Passover comes in two days. That's when the Son of Man will be betrayed and handed over for crucifixion."
3: At that very moment, the party of high priests and religious leaders was meeting in the chambers of the Chief Priest named Caiaphas,
4: conspiring to seize Jesus by stealth and kill him.
5: They agreed that it should not be done during Passover Week. "We don't want a riot on our hands," they said.
6: When Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper,
7: a woman came up to him as he was eating dinner and anointed him with a bottle of very expensive perfume.
8: When the disciples saw what was happening, they were furious. "That's criminal!
9: This could have been sold for a lot and the money handed out to the poor."
10: When Jesus realized what was going on, he intervened. "Why are you giving this woman a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me.
11: You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives, but not me.
12: When she poured this perfume on my body, what she really did was anoint me for burial.
13: You can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she has just done is going to be remembered and admired."
14: That is when one of the Twelve, the one named Judas Iscariot, went to the cabal of high priests
15: and said, "What will you give me if I hand him over to you?" They settled on thirty silver pieces.
16: He began looking for just the right moment to hand him over.
17: On the first of the Days of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Where do you want us to prepare your Passover meal?"
18: He said, "Enter the city. Go up to a certain man and say, "The Teacher says, My time is near. I and my disciples plan to celebrate the Passover meal at your house.'"
19: The disciples followed Jesus' instructions to the letter, and prepared the Passover meal.
20: After sunset, he and the Twelve were sitting around the table.
21: During the meal, he said, "I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators."
22: They were stunned, and then began to ask, one after another, "It isn't me, is it, Master?"
23: Jesus answered, "The one who hands me over is someone I eat with daily, one who passes me food at the table.
24: In one sense the Son of Man is entering into a way of treachery well-marked by the Scriptures--no surprises here. In another sense that man who turns him in, turns traitor to the Son of Man--better never to have been born than do this!"
25: Then Judas, already turned traitor, said, "It isn't me, is it, Rabbi?" Jesus said, "Don't play games with me, Judas."
26: During the meal, Jesus took and blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples: Take, eat. This is my body.
27: Taking the cup and thanking God, he gave it to them: Drink this, all of you.
28: This is my blood, God's new covenant poured out for many people for the forgiveness of sins.
29: "I'll not be drinking wine from this cup again until that new day when I'll drink with you in the kingdom of my Father."
30: They sang a hymn and went directly to Mount Olives.
31: Then Jesus told them, "Before the night's over, you're going to fall to pieces because of what happens to me. There is a Scripture that says, I'll strike the shepherd; helter-skelter the sheep will be scattered.
32: But after I am raised up, I, your Shepherd, will go ahead of you, leading the way to Galilee."
33: Peter broke in, "Even if everyone else falls to pieces on account of you, I won't."
34: "Don't be so sure," Jesus said. "This very night, before the rooster crows up the dawn, you will deny me three times."
35: Peter protested, "Even if I had to die with you, I would never deny you." All the others said the same thing.
36: Then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane and told his disciples, "Stay here while I go over there and pray."
37: Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he plunged into an agonizing sorrow.
38: Then he said, "This sorrow is crushing my life out. Stay here and keep vigil with me."
39: Going a little ahead, he fell on his face, praying, "My Father, if there is any way, get me out of this. But please, not what I want. You, what do you want?"
40: When he came back to his disciples, he found them sound asleep. He said to Peter, "Can't you stick it out with me a single hour?
41: Stay alert; be in prayer so you don't wander into temptation without even knowing you're in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there's another part that's as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire."
42: He then left them a second time. Again he prayed, "My Father, if there is no other way than this, drinking this cup to the dregs, I'm ready. Do it your way."
43: When he came back, he again found them sound asleep. They simply couldn't keep their eyes open.
44: This time he let them sleep on, and went back a third time to pray, going over the same ground one last time.
45: When he came back the next time, he said, "Are you going to sleep on and make a night of it? My time is up, the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the hands of sinners.
46: Get up! Let's get going! My betrayer is here."
47: The words were barely out of his mouth when Judas (the one from the Twelve) showed up, and with him a gang from the high priests and religious leaders brandishing swords and clubs.
48: The betrayer had worked out a sign with them: "The one I kiss, that's the one--seize him."
49: He went straight to Jesus, greeted him, "How are you, Rabbi?" and kissed him.
50: Jesus said, "Friend, why this charade?" Then they came on him--grabbed him and roughed him up.
51: One of those with Jesus pulled his sword and, taking a swing at the Chief Priest's servant, cut off his ear.
52: Jesus said, "Put your sword back where it belongs. All who use swords are destroyed by swords.
53: Don't you realize that I am able right now to call to my Father, and twelve companies--more, if I want them--of fighting angels would be here, battle-ready?
54: But if I did that, how would the Scriptures come true that say this is the way it has to be?"
55: Then Jesus addressed the mob: "What is this--coming out after me with swords and clubs as if I were a dangerous criminal? Day after day I have been sitting in the Temple teaching, and you never so much as lifted a hand against me.
56: You've done it this way to confirm and fulfill the prophetic writings." Then all the disciples cut and ran.
57: The gang that had seized Jesus led him before Caiaphas the Chief Priest, where the religion scholars and leaders had assembled.
58: Peter followed at a safe distance until they got to the Chief Priest's courtyard. Then he slipped in and mingled with the servants, watching to see how things would turn out.
59: The high priests, conspiring with the Jewish Council, tried to cook up charges against Jesus in order to sentence him to death.
60: But even though many stepped up, making up one false accusation after another, nothing was believable. Finally two men came forward
61: with this: "He said, "I can tear down this Temple of God and after three days rebuild it.'"
62: The Chief Priest stood up and said, "What do you have to say to the accusation?"
63: Jesus kept silent. Then the Chief Priest said, "I command you by the authority of the living God to say if you are the Messiah, the Son of God."
64: Jesus was curt: "You yourself said it. And that's not all. Soon you'll see it for yourself: The Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Mighty One, Arriving on the clouds of heaven."
65: At that, the Chief Priest lost his temper, ripping his robes, yelling, "He blasphemed! Why do we need witnesses to accuse him? You all heard him blaspheme!
66: Are you going to stand for such blasphemy?" They all said, "Death! That seals his death sentence."
67: Then they were spitting in his face and banging him around. They jeered as they slapped him:
68: "Prophesy, Messiah: Who hit you that time?"
69: All this time, Peter was sitting out in the courtyard. One servant girl came up to him and said, "You were with Jesus the Galilean."
70: In front of everybody there, he denied it. "I don't know what you're talking about."
71: As he moved over toward the gate, someone else said to the people there, "This man was with Jesus the Nazarene."
72: Again he denied it, salting his denial with an oath: "I swear, I never laid eyes on the man."
73: Shortly after that, some bystanders approached Peter. "You've got to be one of them. Your accent gives you away."
74: Then he got really nervous and swore. "I don't know the man!" Just then a rooster crowed.
75: Peter remembered what Jesus had said: "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." He went out and cried and cried and cried.