Beginning
The spirit and the world
16 “I’ve said these things to you,” Jesus went on, “to stop you from being tripped up. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will suppose that they are thereby offering worship to God. 3 They will do these things because they haven’t known the father, or me. 4 But I have been talking to you about these things so that, when their time comes, you will remember that I told you about them.
“I didn’t say these things to you from the start, because I was with you. 5 But now I’m going to the one who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I’ve said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 However, it’s the truth that I’m telling you: it’s better for you that I should go away. If I don’t go away, you see, the helper won’t come to you. But if I go away, I will send him to you.
8 “When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong on three counts: sin, justice and judgment. 9 In relation to sin—because they don’t believe in me. 10 In relation to justice—because I’m going to the father, and you won’t see me anymore. 11 In relation to judgment—because the ruler of this world is judged.”
Your hearts will rejoice
12 “There are many things I still have to say to you,” Jesus continued, “but you’re not yet strong enough to take them. 13 When the spirit of truth comes, though, he will guide you in all the truth. He won’t speak on his own account, you see, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will announce to you what’s to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take what belongs to me and will announce it to you. 15 Everything that the father has is mine. That’s why I said that he would take what is mine and announce it to you.
16 “Not long from now, you won’t see me anymore. Then again, not long after that, you will see me!”
17 “What’s he talking about?” some of his disciples asked each other. “What’s this business about ‘not long from now, you won’t see me, and again not long after that you will see me’? And what’s this about ‘going to the father’?”
18 They kept on saying it.
“What is this ‘not long’?”
“What’s it all about?”
“We don’t know what he means!”
19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him.
“You’re discussing with each other what I meant, aren’t you?” he said. “You want to know what I meant by saying, ‘Not long from now, you won’t see me; and then again, not long after that, you will see me.’ That’s it, isn’t it? 20 Well, I’m going to tell you the solemn truth.
“You will weep and wail, but the world will celebrate. You will be overcome with sorrow, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is giving birth she is in anguish, because her moment has come. But when the child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering, because of the joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 In the same way, you have sorrow now. But I shall see you again, and your hearts will celebrate, and nobody will take your joy away from you.”
Ask, and you will receive
23 “On that day,” Jesus went on, “you won’t ask me for anything. I’m telling you the solemn truth: whatever you ask the father in my name, he will give you. 24 Up to now, you haven’t asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be full!
25 “I’ve been saying all this to you in picture-language. The time is coming when I won’t speak in pictures anymore. Instead, I’ll tell you about the father quite plainly. 26 On that day you will ask in my name. I won’t say I will ask the father on your behalf, 27 because the father himself loves you! That’s because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the father, and I’ve come into the world. Now I’m leaving the world, and going back to the father.”
29 “Ah!” said his disciples. “Now you’re speaking plainly! You’re not talking in pictures. 30 Now we know that you know all things, and you don’t need to have anybody ask you anything. This makes us trust that you came from God.”
31 “So you do now believe, do you?” replied Jesus. 32 “Look here: the time is coming (in fact, it’s now arrived!) when you will be scattered, each of you to his own place. You will leave me alone—though I’m not alone, because the father is with me. 33 I’ve said these things to you so that you can have peace in me. You’ll have trouble in the world. But cheer up! I have defeated the world!”
Glorify the son
17 After Jesus had said this, he lifted up his eyes to heaven.
“Father,” he said, “the moment has come. Glorify your son, so that your son may glorify you. 2 Do this in the same way as you did when you gave him authority over all flesh, so that he could give the life of God’s coming age to everyone you gave him. 3 And by ‘the life of God’s coming age’ I mean this: that they should know you, the only true God, and Jesus the Messiah, the one you sent.
4 “I glorified you on earth, by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me, alongside yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.
6 “I revealed your name to the people you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you; you gave them to me; and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything which you gave me comes from you. 8 I have given them the words you gave me, and they have received them. They have come to know, in truth, that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me.”
Jesus prays for his people
9 “I’m praying for them. I’m not praying for the world, but for the people you’ve given me. They belong to you. 10 All mine are yours; all yours are mine; and I’m glorified in them.
11 “I’m not in the world any longer, but they’re still in the world; I’m coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name you’ve given to me, so that they may be one, just as we are one.
12 “When I was with them, I kept them in your name, the name you’ve given me. I guarded them, and none of them has been destroyed (except the son of destruction; that’s what the Bible said would happen). 13 But now I’m coming to you. I’m speaking these things in the world, so that they can have my joy fulfilled in them.
14 “I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not from the world, just as I am not from the world. 15 I’m not asking that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. 16 They didn’t come from the world, just as I didn’t come from the world. 17 Set them apart for yourself in the truth; your word is truth. 18 Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. 19 And on their account I set myself apart for you, so that they, too, may be set apart for you in the truth.”
That they may be one
20 “I’m not praying simply for them. I’m praying, too, for the people who will come to believe in me because of their word. 21 I am praying that they may all be one—just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they too may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.
22 “I have given them the glory which you have given to me, so that they may be one, just as we are one. 23 I in them, and you in me; yes, they must be completely one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them just as you loved me.
24 “Father, I want the ones you’ve given me to be with me where I am. I want them to see my glory, the glory which you’ve given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, even the world didn’t know you. But I have known you, and these ones have known that you sent me. 26 I made your name known to them—yes, and I will make it known; so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
The arrest of Jesus
18 With these words, Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden. He and his disciples went in.
2 Judas, his betrayer, knew the place, because Jesus often used it as a meeting-place with his disciples. 3 So Judas took a band of soldiers, with some servants of the chief priests and the Pharisees, and came there with torches, lights and weapons.
4 Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him. He went out to meet them.
“Who are you looking for?” he asked.
5 “Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered.
“I’m the one,” he said to them.
Judas, his betrayer, was standing there with them. 6 So when he said, “I’m the one,” they went back a few paces, and fell down on the ground.
7 Jesus repeated his question.
“Who are you looking for?” he asked.
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.
8 “I told you, I’m the one!” said Jesus. “So, if you’re looking for me, let these people go.” 9 (He said this so as to fulfill the word he had spoken, when he said, “I haven’t lost any of the people you gave me.”)
10 Simon Peter had a sword. He drew it and hit the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.
11 “Put your sword back in its sheath!” said Jesus to Peter. “Do you imagine I’m not going to drink the cup my father has given me?”
12 So the band of soldiers, with the officer and the Judaean attendants, arrested Jesus and tied him up. 13 They led him off first to Annas; he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had given advice to the Judaeans that the best thing would be for one man to die for the people.
Peter denies Jesus
15 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That other disciple was known to the high priest; he went in to the high priest’s courtyard along with Jesus, 16 while Peter stood outside by the gate. So the other disciple, being known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the woman on the gate. Then he brought Peter inside.
17 The woman on the gate spoke to Peter.
“You’re not one of that man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked.
“No, I’m not,” he replied.
18 It was cold. The slaves and the attendants had made a charcoal fire, and they were standing round it, warming themselves. Peter was standing there with them and warming himself.
19 The high priest asked Jesus about his disciples, and about his teaching.
20 “I’ve spoken to the world quite openly,” replied Jesus. “I always taught in the synagogue and in the Temple, where all the Judaeans gather. I didn’t say anything in secret. 21 Why are you asking me? There were people who listened to me. Ask them what I said to them. Don’t you see? They know what I said.”
22 When Jesus said that, one of the attendants standing there gave him a slap on the face.
“Is that how you answer the high priest?” he said.
23 “If I’ve said something wrong,” replied Jesus, “give evidence about what was wrong with it. But if what I said was true, why are you hitting me?”
24 So Annas sent him off, still tied up, to Caiaphas the high priest.
25 Simon Peter, meanwhile, was standing there and warming himself.
“You’re not one of his disciples, are you?” they asked him.
He denied it. “No, I’m not,” he said.
26 Then one of the high priest’s slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, spoke up.
“Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?” he said.
27 Peter denied it once more. Instantly, the cock crowed.
Pilate and the Judaeans
28 So they took Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, the governor’s residence. It was early in the morning. They didn’t themselves go inside the Praetorium. They were anxious not to pollute themselves, so that they would still be able to eat the Passover.
29 So Pilate went outside and spoke to them.
“What’s the charge, then?” he asked. “What have you got against this fellow?”
30 “If he wasn’t doing wicked things,” they replied, “we wouldn’t have handed him over to you.”
31 “Take him yourselves,” said Pilate to them, “and judge him by your own law.”
“We’re not allowed to put anyone to death,” replied the Judaeans. 32 (This was so that the word of Jesus might come true, when he had indicated what sort of death he was going to die.)
My kingdom is not from this world
33 So Pilate went back in to the Praetorium and spoke to Jesus.
“Are you the King of the Jews?” he asked.
34 “Was it your idea to ask that?” asked Jesus. “Or did other people tell you about me?”
35 “I’m not a Jew, am I?” retorted Pilate. “Your own people, and the chief priests, have handed you over to me! What have you done?”
36 “My kingdom isn’t the sort that grows in this world,” replied Jesus. “If my kingdom were from this world, my supporters would have fought, to stop me being handed over to the Judaeans. So then, my kingdom is not the sort that comes from here.”
37 “So!” said Pilate. “You are a king, are you?”
“You’re the one who’s calling me a king,” replied Jesus. “I was born for this; I’ve come into the world for this: to give evidence about the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
38 “Truth!” said Pilate. “What’s that?”
With those words, he went back out to the Judaeans.
“I find this man not guilty!” he said to them. 39 “But look here: you’ve got this custom that I should let someone free at Passover-time. So what about it? Would you like me to release ‘The King of the Jews’?”
40 “No!” they shouted. “We don’t want him! Give us Barabbas!”
Now Barabbas was a brigand.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.