Beginning
Modeling Servanthood
13 Now it was just before the feast of Passover. Yeshua knew that His hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them until the end.[a]
2 While the seder meal was happening, the devil had already put in the heart of Judah from Kriot that he should hand over Yeshua. 3 Yeshua knew that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was returning to God. 4 So He gets up from the meal and lays aside His outer garment; and taking a towel, He wrapped it around His waist. 5 Then He pours water into a basin. He began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel wrapped around Him.
6 Then He comes to Simon Peter, who says to Him, “Master, are You going to wash my feet?”
7 Yeshua responded, “You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand after these things.”
8 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”
Yeshua answered him, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with Me.”
9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Master, then not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”
10 Yeshua said to him, “He who has bathed has no need to wash, except the feet; he is completely clean. And you all are clean, though not every one.” 11 He knew who was betraying Him; for this reason, He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 So after He had washed their feet and put His robe back on and reclined again, He said to them, “Do you understand what I have done for you? 13 You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master’—and rightly you say, for I am. 14 So if I, your Master and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example—you should do for each other what I have done for you.
16 “Amen, amen I tell you, a servant isn’t greater than his master, and the one who is sent isn’t greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them!”
Yeshua Reveals His Betrayer
18 “I am not speaking to all of you—I know whom I have chosen. But so the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ [b] 19 From now on I am telling you, before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I am. 20 Amen, amen I tell you, he who receives the one I send, receives Me; and he who receives Me, receives the One who sent Me.”
21 After He said these things, Yeshua was agitated in spirit and testified, “Amen, amen I tell you, one of you will betray Me!”
22 The disciples began looking at each other, perplexed—who was He talking about? 23 One of His disciples, whom Yeshua loved, was reclining at His side. 24 Simon Peter nods to him and says, “Ask Him—who is He talking about?”
25 Then he who leaned on Yeshua’s chest says to Him, “Master, who is it?”
26 Yeshua answers, “It’s the one I will give this bit of matzah to, after I dip it.” After dipping the matzah,[c] He takes it and gives it to Judah from Kriot, the son of Simon. 27 And with that bit, satan entered into him. Then Yeshua tells him, “What you’re about to do, do quickly!”
28 But no one reclining at the table knew why Yeshua said this to him. 29 Since Judah had the moneybox, some thought Yeshua was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. 30 So after Judah received the bit of matzah, he left immediately. Now it was night.
Leaving a Legacy of Love
31 Then when Judah had gone out, Yeshua said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him! 32 If God is glorified in Him,[d] God will glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will search for Me; and just as I told the Judean leaders, so I say to you now, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
34 “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you must love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
36 “Master, where are You going?” Simon Peter said to Him.
Yeshua answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow Me later.”
37 Peter said to Him, “Master, why can’t I follow You now? I’ll lay down my life for You!”
38 Yeshua answers, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Amen, amen I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times!”
The Way to the Father’s House
14 “Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, so that where I am you may also be. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”[e]
5 Thomas said to Him, “Master, we don’t know where You are going. How can we know the way?”
6 Yeshua said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life! No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 If you have come to know Me, you will know My Father also. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.”
8 Philip said to Him, “Master, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
9 Yeshua said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time, and you haven’t come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own; but the Father dwelling in Me does His works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me—or at least believe because of the works themselves.
12 “Amen, amen I tell you, he who puts his trust in Me, the works that I do he will do; and greater than these he will do, because I am going to the Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask Me[f] anything in My name, I will do it.”
The Believer’s Helper
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper[g] so He may be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him. You know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you. 18 I will not abandon you as orphans;[h] I will come to you. 19 In a little while, the world will no longer behold Me, but you will behold Me. Because I live, you also will live!
20 “In that day, you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
22 Judah (not the one from Kriot) said to Him, “Master, what has happened, that You are about to reveal Yourself to us and not the world?”
23 Yeshua answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. 25 These things I have spoken to you while dwelling with you. 26 But the Helper, the Ruach ha-Kodesh whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I said to you.
27 “Shalom I leave you, My shalom I give to you; but not as the world gives! Do not let your heart be troubled or afraid. 28 You’ve heard Me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe!
30 “I will not talk with you much longer, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has nothing on Me. 31 But in order that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.
“Get up, let’s go from here!”
Abiding in the Vine
15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He trims so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. The branch cannot itself produce fruit, unless it abides on the vine. Likewise, you cannot produce fruit unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me, you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and is dried up. Such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned.
7 “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. 8 In this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples.”
9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you. Abide in My love! 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be full.
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. [i] 13 No one has greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.
15 “I am no longer calling you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. Now I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I selected you so that you would go and produce fruit, and your fruit would remain. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name.
17 “These things I command you, so that you may love one another.”
The World Hates God’s Own
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But you are not of the world, since I have chosen you out of the world; therefore the world hates you.
20 “Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’[j] If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
21 “But all these things they will do to you for the sake of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 “He who hates Me also hates My Father. 24 If I had not done works among them that no one else did, they would have no sin. But now they have seen and have hated both Me and My Father. 25 So is fulfilled the word written in their Scripture,[k] ‘They hated Me for no reason.’[l]
26 “When the Helper comes—whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—He will testify about Me. 27 And you also testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.