Book of Common Prayer

Confirm your call!

1 Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus the Messiah, to those who have obtained a share of faith equal to ours in the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus the Messiah: ² may grace and peace be multiplied to you, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³ God has bestowed upon us, through his divine power, everything that we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue. ⁴ The result is that he has given us, through these things, his precious and wonderful promises; and the purpose of all this is so that you may run away from the corruption of lust that is in the world, and may become partakers of the divine nature. ⁵ So, because of this, you should strain every nerve to supplement your faith with virtue, and your virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and your knowledge with self-control, and your self-control with patience, and your patience with piety, ⁷ and your piety with family affection, and your family affection with love. ⁸ If you have these things in plentiful supply, you see, you will not be wasting your time, or failing to bear fruit, in relation to your knowledge of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. ⁹ Someone who doesn’t have these things, in fact, is so short-sighted as to be actually blind, and has forgotten what it means to be cleansed from earlier sins. ¹⁰ So, my dear family, you must make the effort all the more to confirm that God has called you and chosen you. If you do this, you will never trip up. ¹¹ That is how you will have, richly laid out before you, an entrance into the kingdom of God’s coming age, the kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus the Messiah.

Jesus is arrested

³⁹ So off they went. Jesus headed, as usual, for the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.

⁴⁰ When he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you won’t come into the trial.”

⁴¹ He then withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down to pray.

⁴² “Father,” he said, “if you wish it—please take this cup away from me! But it must be your will, not mine.” ⁴³ An angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him. ⁴⁴ By now he was in agony, and he prayed very fervently. And his sweat became like clots of blood, falling on the ground. ⁴⁵ Then he got up from praying, and came to the disciples and found them asleep because of sorrow.

⁴⁶ “Why are you sleeping?” he said to them. “Get up and pray, so that you won’t come into the trial.”

⁴⁷ While he was still speaking, a crowd appeared. The man named Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, ⁴⁸ but Jesus said to him, “Judas! Are you going to betray the son of man with a kiss?”

⁴⁹ Jesus’ followers saw what was about to happen.

“Master!” they said. “Shall we go in with the swords?” ⁵⁰ And one of them struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear.

⁵¹ “Enough of that!” said Jesus, and healed the ear with a touch.

⁵² Then Jesus spoke to the arresting party—the chief priests, the Temple guards, and the elders.

“Anyone would think I was a brigand,” he said, “seeing you coming out like this with swords and clubs! ⁵³ Every day I’ve been in the Temple with you and you never laid hands on me. But your moment has come at last, and so has the power of darkness.”