Book of Common Prayer
The living sacrifice
12 So, my dear family, this is my appeal to you by the mercies of God: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. That’s what properly thought-out worship looks like. 2 What’s more, don’t let yourselves be squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age. Instead, be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you can work out what God’s will is, what is good, acceptable and complete.
3 Through the grace which was given to me, I have this to say to each one of you: don’t think of yourselves more highly than you ought to think. Rather, think soberly, in line with faith, the true standard which God has marked out for each of you. 4 As in one body we have many limbs and organs, you see, and all the parts have different functions, 5 so we, many as we are, are one body in the Messiah, and individually we belong to one another.
Living together in the Messiah
6 Well then, we have gifts that differ in accordance with the grace that has been given to us, and we must use them appropriately. If it is prophecy, we must prophesy according to the pattern of the faith. 7 If it is serving, we must work at our serving; if teaching, at our teaching; 8 if exhortation, at our exhortation; if giving, with generosity; if leading, with energy; if doing acts of kindness, with cheerfulness.
Preparations for Jesus’ death
26 So this is how it finally happened.
When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, 2 “In two days’ time, as you know, it’ll be Passover! That’s when the son of man will be handed over to be crucified.”
3 Then the chief priests got together with the elders of the people, in the official residence of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas. 4 They plotted how to capture Jesus by some trick, and kill him.
5 “We’d better not try anything at the feast,” they said. “We don’t want the people to riot.”
6 While Jesus was at Bethany, in the house of Simon (known as “the Leper”), 7 a woman came to him who had an alabaster vase of extremely valuable ointment. She poured it on his head as he was reclining at the table.
8 When the disciples saw it, they were furious.
“What’s the point of all this waste?” they said. 9 “This could have been sold for a fortune, and the money could have been given to the poor!”
10 Jesus knew what they were thinking.
“Why make life difficult for the woman?” he said. “It’s a lovely thing, what she’s done for me. 11 You always have the poor with you, don’t you? But you won’t always have me. 12 When she poured this ointment on my body, you see, she did it to prepare me for my burial. 13 I’m telling you the truth: wherever this gospel is announced in all the world, what she has just done will be told, and people will remember her.”
Passover and betrayal
14 Then one of the Twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests.
15 “What will you give me,” he said, “to hand him over to you?”
They settled the deal with him at thirty pieces of silver. 16 From that moment on, he was watching for an opportunity to hand him over.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.