The Passover Meal^(A)

¹⁷ On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the followers came to Jesus. They said, “We will prepare everything for you to eat the Passover meal. Where do you want us to have the meal?”

¹⁸ Jesus answered, “Go into the city. Go to a man I know. Tell him that the Teacher says, ‘The chosen time is near. I will have the Passover meal with my followers at your house.’” ¹⁹ They obeyed and did what Jesus told them to do. They prepared the Passover meal.

²⁰ In the evening Jesus was at the table with the twelve followers. ²¹ They were all eating. Then Jesus said, “Believe me when I say that one of you twelve here will hand me over to my enemies.”

²² The followers were very sad to hear this. Each one said, “Lord, surely I am not the one!”

²³ Jesus answered, “One who has dipped his bread in the same bowl with me will be the one to hand me over. ²⁴ The Son of Man will suffer what the Scriptures say will happen to him. But it will be very bad for the one who hands over the Son of Man to be killed. It would be better for him if he had never been born.”

²⁵ Then Judas, the very one who would hand him over, said to Jesus, “Teacher, surely I am not the one you are talking about, am I?”

Jesus answered, “Yes, it is you.”

The Passover Meal^(A)

¹² It was now the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread—the day the lambs were killed for the Passover. Jesus’ followers came to him and said, “We will go and prepare everything for you to eat the Passover meal. Where do you want us to have the meal?”

¹³ Jesus sent two of his followers into the city. He said to them, “Go into the city. You will see a man carrying a jar of water. He will come to you. Follow him. ¹⁴ He will go into a house. Tell the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks that you show us the room where he and his followers can eat the Passover meal.’ ¹⁵ The owner will show you a large room upstairs that is ready for us. Prepare the meal for us there.”

¹⁶ So the followers left and went into the city. Everything happened the way Jesus said. So the followers prepared the Passover meal.

¹⁷ In the evening Jesus went to that house with the twelve apostles. ¹⁸ While they were all at the table eating, he said, “Believe me when I say that one of you will hand me over to my enemies—one of you eating with me now.”

¹⁹ The followers were very sad to hear this. Each one said to Jesus, “Surely I am not the one!”

²⁰ Jesus answered, “It is one of you twelve—the one who is dipping his bread in the same bowl with me. ²¹ The Son of Man will suffer what the Scriptures say will happen to him. But it will be very bad for the one who hands over the Son of Man to be killed. It would be better for him if he had never been born.”

Jesus Tells Who Will Turn Against Him^(A)

²¹ After Jesus said these things, he felt very troubled. He said openly, “Believe me when I say that one of you will hand me over to my enemies.”

²² His followers all looked at each other. They did not understand who Jesus was talking about. ²³ One of the followers was next to Jesus and was leaning close to him. This was the one Jesus loved very much. ²⁴ Simon Peter made signs to this follower to ask Jesus who he was talking about.

²⁵ That follower leaned closer to Jesus and asked, “Lord, who is it?”

²⁶ Jesus answered him, “I will dip this bread into the dish. The man I give it to is the one.” So Jesus took a piece of bread, dipped it, and gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. ²⁷ When Judas took the bread, Satan entered him. Jesus said to Judas, “What you will do—do it quickly!” ²⁸ No one at the table understood why Jesus said this to Judas. ²⁹ Since Judas was the one in charge of the money, some of them thought that Jesus meant for him to go and buy some things they needed for the feast. Or they thought that Jesus wanted him to go give something to the poor.

³⁰ Judas ate the bread Jesus gave him. Then he immediately went out. It was night.