Matthew 26:14-27:66

Living Bible

¹⁴ Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, went to the chief priests ¹⁵ and asked, “How much will you pay me to get Jesus into your hands?” And they gave him thirty silver coins. ¹⁶ From that time on, Judas watched for an opportunity to betray Jesus to them.

¹⁷ On the first day of the Passover ceremonies, when bread made with yeast was purged from every Jewish home, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where shall we plan to eat the Passover?”

¹⁸ He replied, “Go into the city and see Mr. So-and-So, and tell him, ‘Our Master says, my time has come, and I will eat the Passover meal with my disciples at your house.’” ¹⁹ So the disciples did as he told them and prepared the supper there.

^20-21 That evening as he sat eating with the Twelve, he said, “One of you will betray me.”

²² Sorrow chilled their hearts, and each one asked, “Am I the one?”

²³ He replied, “It is the one I served first.^{[a] 24} For I must die^[b] just as was prophesied, but woe to the man by whom I am betrayed. Far better for that one if he had never been born.”

²⁵ Judas, too, had asked him, “Rabbi, am I the one?” And Jesus had told him, “Yes.”

²⁶ As they were eating, Jesus took a small loaf of bread and blessed it and broke it apart and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take it and eat it, for this is my body.”

²⁷ And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks for it and gave it to them and said, “Each one drink from it, ²⁸ for this is my blood, sealing the new covenant. It is poured out to forgive the sins of multitudes. ²⁹ Mark my words—I will not drink this wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”

³⁰ And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

³¹ Then Jesus said to them, “Tonight you will all desert me. For it is written in the Scriptures^[c] that God will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. ³² But after I have been brought back to life again, I will go to Galilee and meet you there.”

³³ Peter declared, “If everyone else deserts you, I won’t.”

³⁴ Jesus told him, “The truth is that this very night, before the cock crows at dawn, you will deny me three times!”

³⁵ “I would die first!” Peter insisted. And all the other disciples said the same thing.

³⁶ Then Jesus brought them to a garden grove, Gethsemane, and told them to sit down and wait while he went on ahead to pray. ³⁷ He took Peter with him and Zebedee’s two sons James and John, and began to be filled with anguish and despair.

³⁸ Then he told them, “My soul is crushed with horror and sadness to the point of death . . . stay here . . . stay awake with me.”

³⁹ He went forward a little, and fell face downward on the ground, and prayed, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup be taken away from me. But I want your will, not mine.”

⁴⁰ Then he returned to the three disciples and found them asleep. “Peter,” he called, “couldn’t you even stay awake with me one hour? ⁴¹ Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For the spirit indeed is willing, but how weak the body is!”

⁴² Again he left them and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot go away until I drink it all, your will be done.”

⁴³ He returned to them again and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy, ⁴⁴ so he went back to prayer the third time, saying the same things again.

⁴⁵ Then he came to the disciples and said, “Sleep on now and take your rest . . . but no! The time has come! I am^[d] betrayed into the hands of evil men! ⁴⁶ Up! Let’s be going! Look! Here comes the man who is betraying me!”

⁴⁷ At that very moment while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived with a great crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent by the Jewish leaders. ⁴⁸ Judas had told them to arrest the man he greeted, for that would be the one they were after. ⁴⁹ So now Judas came straight to Jesus and said, “Hello, Master!” and embraced^[e] him in friendly fashion.

⁵⁰ Jesus said, “My friend, go ahead and do what you have come for.” Then the others grabbed him.

⁵¹ One of the men with Jesus pulled out a sword and slashed off the ear of the high priest’s servant.

⁵² “Put away your sword,” Jesus told him. “Those using swords will get killed. ⁵³ Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? ⁵⁴ But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what is happening now?” ⁵⁵ Then Jesus spoke to the crowd. “Am I some dangerous criminal,” he asked, “that you had to arm yourselves with swords and clubs before you could arrest me? I was with you teaching daily in the Temple and you didn’t stop me then. ⁵⁶ But this is all happening to fulfill the words of the prophets as recorded in the Scriptures.”

At that point, all the disciples deserted him and fled.

⁵⁷ Then the mob led him to the home of Caiaphas, the high priest, where all the Jewish leaders were gathering. ⁵⁸ Meanwhile, Peter was following far to the rear, and came to the courtyard of the high priest’s house and went in and sat with the soldiers, and waited to see what was going to be done to Jesus.

⁵⁹ The chief priests and, in fact, the entire Jewish Supreme Court assembled there and looked for witnesses who would lie about Jesus, in order to build a case against him that would result in a death sentence. ^60-61 But even though they found many who agreed to be false witnesses, these always contradicted each other.

Finally two men were found who declared, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the Temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”

⁶² Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Well, what about it? Did you say that, or didn’t you?” ⁶³ But Jesus remained silent.

Then the high priest said to him, “I demand in the name of the living God that you tell us whether you claim to be the Messiah, the Son of God.”

⁶⁴ “Yes,” Jesus said, “I am. And in the future you will see me, the Messiah,^[f] sitting at the right hand of God and returning on the clouds of heaven.”

^65-66 Then the high priest tore at his own clothing, shouting, “Blasphemy! What need have we for other witnesses? You have all heard him say it! What is your verdict?”

They shouted, “Death!—Death!—Death!”

⁶⁷ Then they spat in his face and struck him and some slapped him, ⁶⁸ saying, “Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who struck you that time?”

⁶⁹ Meanwhile, as Peter was sitting in the courtyard, a girl came over and said to him, “You were with Jesus, for both of you are from Galilee.”^[g]

⁷⁰ But Peter denied it loudly. “I don’t even know what you are talking about,” he angrily declared.

⁷¹ Later, out by the gate, another girl noticed him and said to those standing around, “This man was with Jesus—from Nazareth.”

⁷² Again Peter denied it, this time with an oath. “I don’t even know the man,” he said.

⁷³ But after a while the men who had been standing there came over to him and said, “We know you are one of his disciples, for we can tell by your Galilean^[h] accent.”

⁷⁴ Peter began to curse and swear. “I don’t even know the man,” he said.

And immediately the cock crowed. ⁷⁵ Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said, “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went away, crying bitterly.

27 When it was morning, the chief priests and Jewish leaders met again to discuss how to induce the Roman government to sentence Jesus to death.^{[i] 2} Then they sent him in chains to Pilate, the Roman governor.

³ About that time Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus had been condemned to die, changed his mind and deeply regretted what he had done,^[j] and brought back the money to the chief priests and other Jewish leaders.

⁴ “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.”

“That’s your problem,” they retorted.

⁵ Then he threw the money onto the floor of the Temple and went out and hanged himself. ⁶ The chief priests picked the money up. “We can’t put it in the collection,” they said, “since it’s against our laws to accept money paid for murder.”

⁷ They talked it over and finally decided to buy a certain field where the clay was used by potters, and to make it into a cemetery for foreigners who died in Jerusalem. ⁸ That is why the cemetery is still called “The Field of Blood.”

⁹ This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah which says,

“They took the thirty pieces of silver—the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel— ¹⁰ and purchased a field from the potters as the Lord directed me.”

¹¹ Now Jesus was standing before Pilate, the Roman governor. “Are you the Jews’ Messiah?”^[k] the governor asked him.

“Yes,” Jesus replied.

¹² But when the chief priests and other Jewish leaders made their many accusations against him, Jesus remained silent.

¹³ “Don’t you hear what they are saying?” Pilate demanded.

¹⁴ But Jesus said nothing, much to the governor’s surprise.

¹⁵ Now the governor’s custom was to release one Jewish prisoner each year during the Passover celebration—anyone they wanted. ¹⁶ This year there was a particularly notorious criminal in jail named Barabbas, ¹⁷ and as the crowds gathered before Pilate’s house that morning he asked them, “Which shall I release to you—Barabbas, or Jesus your Messiah?”^{[l] 18} For he knew very well that the Jewish leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy because of his popularity with the people.

¹⁹ Just then, as he was presiding over the court, Pilate’s wife sent him this message: “Leave that good man alone; for I had a terrible nightmare concerning him last night.”

²⁰ Meanwhile the chief priests and Jewish officials persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas’s release, and for Jesus’ death. ²¹ So when the governor asked again,^[m] “Which of these two shall I release to you?” the crowd shouted back their reply: “Barabbas!”

²² “Then what shall I do with Jesus, your Messiah?” Pilate asked.

And they shouted, “Crucify him!”

²³ “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What has he done wrong?” But they kept shouting, “Crucify! Crucify!”

²⁴ When Pilate saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere and that a riot was developing, he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this good man. The responsibility is yours!”

²⁵ And the mob yelled back, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

²⁶ Then Pilate released Barabbas to them. And after he had whipped Jesus, he gave him to the Roman soldiers to be taken away and crucified. ²⁷ But first they took him into the armory and called out the entire contingent. ²⁸ They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and made a crown from long thorns and put it on his head, and placed a stick in his right hand as a scepter and knelt before him in mockery. “Hail, King of the Jews,” they yelled. ³⁰ And they spat on him and grabbed the stick and beat him on the head with it.

³¹ After the mockery, they took off the robe and put his own garment on him again, and took him out to crucify him.

³² As they were on the way to the execution grounds they came across a man from Cyrene, in Africa—Simon was his name—and forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. ³³ Then they went out to an area known as Golgotha, that is, “Skull Hill,” ³⁴ where the soldiers gave him drugged wine to drink; but when he had tasted it, he refused.

³⁵ After the crucifixion, the soldiers threw dice to divide up his clothes among themselves. ³⁶ Then they sat around and watched him as he hung there. ³⁷ And they put a sign above his head, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

³⁸ Two robbers were also crucified there that morning, one on either side of him. ³⁹ And the people passing by hurled abuse, shaking their heads at him and saying, ⁴⁰ “So! You can destroy the Temple and build it again in three days, can you? Well, then, come on down from the cross if you are the Son of God!”

^41-43 And the chief priests and Jewish leaders also mocked him. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So you are the King of Israel, are you? Come down from the cross and we’ll believe you! He trusted God—let God show his approval by delivering him! Didn’t he say, ‘I am God’s Son’?”

⁴⁴ And the robbers also threw the same in his teeth.

⁴⁵ That afternoon, the whole earth^[n] was covered with darkness for three hours, from noon until three o’clock.

⁴⁶ About three o’clock, Jesus shouted, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

⁴⁷ Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for Elijah. ⁴⁸ One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine and put it on a stick and held it up to him to drink. ⁴⁹ But the rest said, “Leave him alone. Let’s see whether Elijah will come and save him.”

⁵⁰ Then Jesus shouted out again, dismissed his spirit, and died.

⁵¹ And look! The curtain secluding the Holiest Place^[o] in the Temple was split apart from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and rocks broke, ⁵² and tombs opened, and many godly men and women who had died came back to life again. ⁵³ After Jesus’ resurrection, they left the cemetery and went into Jerusalem, and appeared to many people there.

⁵⁴ The soldiers at the crucifixion and their sergeant were terribly frightened by the earthquake and all that happened. They exclaimed, “Surely this was God’s Son.”^[p]

⁵⁵ And many women who had come down from Galilee with Jesus to care for him were watching from a distance. ⁵⁶ Among them were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of James and John (the sons of Zebedee).

⁵⁷ When evening came, a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, one of Jesus’ followers, ⁵⁸ went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. And Pilate issued an order to release it to him. ⁵⁹ Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, ⁶⁰ and placed it in his own new rock-hewn tomb, and rolled a great stone across the entrance as he left. ⁶¹ Both Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting nearby watching.

⁶² The next day—at the close of the first day of the Passover ceremonies^[q]—the chief priests and Pharisees went to Pilate, ⁶³ and told him, “Sir, that liar once said, ‘After three days I will come back to life again.’ ⁶⁴ So we request an order from you sealing the tomb until the third day, to prevent his disciples from coming and stealing his body and then telling everyone he came back to life! If that happens, we’ll be worse off than we were at first.”

⁶⁵ “Use your own Temple police,” Pilate told them. “They can guard it safely enough.”

⁶⁶ So they sealed the stone^[r] and posted guards to protect it from intrusion.