Book of Common Prayer

Passover

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ² “This month will be the very first month of the year for you. ³ Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth ⌞day⌟ of this month each man must take a lamb or a young goat for his family—one animal per household. ⁴ A household may be too small to eat a whole animal. That household and the one next door can share one animal. Choose your animal based on the number of people and what each person can eat. ⁵ Your animal must be a one-year-old male that has no defects. You may choose a lamb or a young goat. ⁶ Take care of it until the fourteenth ⌞day⌟ of this month.

“Then at dusk, all the assembled people from the community of Israel must slaughter their animals. ⁷ They must take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they will eat the animals. ⁸ The meat must be eaten that same night. It must be roasted over a fire and eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. ⁹ Don’t eat any of it raw or boiled but roast the whole animal over a fire. ¹⁰ Don’t leave any of it until morning. Anything left over in the morning must be burned up. ¹¹ This is how ⌞you should be dressed when⌟ you eat it: with your belt on, your sandals on your feet, and your shepherd’s staff in your hand. You must eat it in a hurry. It is the Lord’s Passover.

¹² “On that same night I will go throughout Egypt and kill every firstborn male, both human and animal. I will severely punish all the gods of Egypt, ⌞because⌟ I am the Lord. ¹³ But the blood on your houses will be a sign for your protection. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Nothing will touch or destroy you when I strike Egypt.

¹⁴ “This day will be one for you to remember. This is a permanent law for generations to come: You will celebrate this day as a pilgrimage festival in the Lord’s honor.

The Word Becomes Human

1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was already with God in the beginning.

³ Everything came into existence through him. Not one thing that exists was made without him.

⁴ He was the source of life, and that life was the light for humanity.

⁵ The light shines in the dark, and the dark has never extinguished it.

⁶ God sent a man named John to be his messenger. ⁷ John came to declare the truth about the light so that everyone would become believers through his message. ⁸ John was not the light, but he came to declare the truth about the light.

⁹ The real light, which shines on everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world came into existence through him. Yet, the world didn’t recognize him. ¹¹ He went to his own people, and his own people didn’t accept him. ¹² However, he gave the right to become God’s children to everyone who believed in him. ¹³ These people didn’t become God’s children in a physical way—from a human impulse or from a husband’s desire ⌞to have a child⌟. They were born from God.

¹⁴ The Word became human and lived among us. We saw his glory. It was the glory that the Father shares with his only Son, a glory full of kindness ^[a] and truth.

¹⁵ (John declared the truth about him when he said loudly, “This is the person about whom I said, ‘The one who comes after me was before me because he existed before I did.’ ”)

¹⁶ Each of us has received one gift after another because of all that the Word is. ¹⁷ Laws were given through Moses, but kindness and truth came into existence through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God. God’s only Son, the one who is closest to the Father’s heart, has made him known.

Jesus Appears to Disciples on a Road to Emmaus

¹³ On the same day, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village called Emmaus. It was about seven miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ They were talking to each other about everything that had happened.

¹⁵ While they were talking, Jesus approached them and began walking with them. ¹⁶ Although they saw him, they didn’t recognize him.

¹⁷ He asked them, “What are you discussing?”

They stopped and looked very sad. ¹⁸ One of them, Cleopas, replied, “Are you the only one in Jerusalem who doesn’t know what has happened recently?”

¹⁹ “What happened?” he asked.

They said to him, “We were discussing what happened to Jesus from Nazareth. He was a powerful prophet in what he did and said in the sight of God and all the people. ²⁰ Our chief priests and rulers had him condemned to death and crucified. ²¹ We were hoping that he was the one who would free Israel. What’s more, this is now the third day since everything happened. ²² Some of the women from our group startled us. They went to the tomb early this morning ²³ and didn’t find his body. They told us that they had seen angels who said that he’s alive. ²⁴ Some of our men went to the tomb and found it empty, as the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”

²⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “How foolish you are! You’re so slow to believe everything the prophets said! ²⁶ Didn’t the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” ²⁷ Then he began with Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets to explain to them what was said about him throughout the Scriptures.

²⁸ When they came near the village where they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. ²⁹ They urged him, “Stay with us! It’s getting late, and the day is almost over.” So he went to stay with them.

³⁰ While he was at the table with them, he took bread and blessed it. He broke the bread and gave it to them. ³¹ Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. But he vanished from their sight.

³² They said to each other, “Weren’t we excited when he talked with us on the road and opened up the meaning of the Scriptures for us?”

³³ That same hour they went back to Jerusalem. They found the eleven apostles and those who were with them gathered together. ³⁴ They were saying, “The Lord has really come back to life and has appeared to Simon.”

³⁵ Then the two disciples told what had happened on the road and how they had recognized Jesus when he broke the bread.

Jesus Appears to the Disciples^(A)

¹⁹ That Sunday evening, the disciples were together behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jews. Jesus stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰ When he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were glad to see the Lord.

²¹ Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” ²² After he had said this, he breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ Whenever you forgive sins, they are forgiven. Whenever you don’t forgive them, they are not forgiven.”