Read the Gospels in 40 Days

Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet

13 Before the Passover festival, Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go back to the Father. Jesus loved his own who were in the world, and he loved them to the end.

² While supper was taking place, the devil had already put the idea of betraying Jesus into the mind of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.

³ The Father had put everything in Jesus’ control. Jesus knew that. He also knew that he had come from God and was going back to God. ⁴ So he got up from the table, removed his outer clothes, took a towel, and tied it around his waist. ⁵ Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel that he had tied around his waist.

⁶ When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷ Jesus answered Peter, “You don’t know now what I’m doing. You will understand later.”

⁸ Peter told Jesus, “You will never wash my feet.”

Jesus replied to Peter, “If I don’t wash you, you don’t belong to me.”

⁹ Simon Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, don’t wash only my feet. Wash my hands and my head too!”

¹⁰ Jesus told Peter, “People who have washed are completely clean. They need to have only their feet washed. All of you, except for one, are clean.” ¹¹ (Jesus knew who was going to betray him. That’s why he said, “All of you, except for one, are clean.”)

¹² After Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothes, he took his place at the table again. Then he asked his disciples, “Do you understand what I’ve done for you? ¹³ You call me teacher and Lord, and you’re right because that’s what I am. ¹⁴ So if I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you must wash each other’s feet. ¹⁵ I’ve given you an example that you should follow. ¹⁶ I can guarantee this truth: Slaves are not superior to their owners, and messengers are not superior to the people who send them. ¹⁷ If you understand all of this, you are blessed whenever you follow my example.

¹⁸ “I’m not talking about all of you. I know the people I’ve chosen ⌞to be apostles⌟. However, I’ve made my choice so that Scripture will come true. It says, ‘The one who eats my bread has turned against me.’ ¹⁹ I’m telling you now before it happens. Then, when it happens, you will believe that I am the one.

²⁰ “I can guarantee this truth: Whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”

Jesus Knows Who Will Betray Him^(A)

²¹ After saying this, Jesus was deeply troubled. He declared, “I can guarantee this truth: One of you is going to betray me!”

²² The disciples began looking at each other and wondering which one of them Jesus meant.

²³ One disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, was near him at the table. ²⁴ Simon Peter motioned to that disciple and said, “Ask Jesus whom he’s talking about!”

²⁵ Leaning close to Jesus, that disciple asked, “Lord, who is it?”

²⁶ Jesus answered, “He’s the one to whom I will give this piece of bread after I’ve dipped it in the sauce.” So Jesus dipped the bread and gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.

²⁷ Then, after Judas took the piece of bread, Satan entered him. So Jesus told him, “Hurry! Do what you have to do.” ²⁸ No one at the table knew why Jesus said this to him. ²⁹ Judas had the moneybag. So some thought that Jesus was telling him to buy what they needed for the festival or to give something to the poor.

³⁰ Judas took the piece of bread and immediately went outside. It was night.

³¹ When Judas was gone, Jesus said, “The Son of Man is now glorified, and because of him God is glorified. ³² If God is glorified because of the Son of Man, God will glorify the Son of Man because of himself, and he will glorify the Son of Man at once.”

Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial^(B)

³³ Jesus said, “Dear children, I will still be with you for a little while. I’m telling you what I told the Jews. You will look for me, but you can’t go where I’m going.

³⁴ “I’m giving you a new commandment: Love each other in the same way that I have loved you. ³⁵ Everyone will know that you are my disciples because of your love for each other.”

³⁶ Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus answered him, “You can’t follow me now to the place where I’m going. However, you will follow me later.”

³⁷ Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I’ll give my life for you.”

³⁸ Jesus replied, “Will you give your life for me? I can guarantee this truth: No rooster will crow until you say three times that you don’t know me.

Jesus Promises to Send the Holy Spirit

14 “Don’t be troubled. Believe in God, and believe in me. ² My Father’s house has many rooms. If that were not true, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? ³ If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again. Then I will bring you into my presence so that you will be where I am. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.”

⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. So how can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you have known me, you will also know my Father. From now on you know him ⌞through me⌟ and have seen him ⌞in me⌟.”

⁸ Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will satisfy us.”

⁹ Jesus replied, “I have been with all of you for a long time. Don’t you know me yet, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father. So 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? What I’m telling you doesn’t come from me. The Father, who lives in me, does what he wants. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe me because of the things I do.

¹² “I can guarantee this truth: Those who believe in me will do the things that I am doing. They will do even greater things because I am going to the Father. ¹³ I will do anything you ask ⌞the Father⌟ in my name so that the Father will be given glory because of the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me to do something, I will do it.

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. ¹⁶ I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever. ¹⁷ That helper is the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him, because it doesn’t see or know him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you.

¹⁸ “I will not leave you all alone. I will come back to you. ¹⁹ In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. You will live because I live. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me and that I am in you. ²¹ Whoever knows and obeys my commandments is the person who loves me. Those who love me will have my Father’s love, and I, too, will love them and show myself to them.”

²² Judas (not Iscariot) asked Jesus, “Lord, what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

²³ Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will go to them and make our home with them. ²⁴ A person who doesn’t love me doesn’t do what I say. I don’t make up what you hear me say. What I say comes from the Father who sent me.

²⁵ “I have told you this while I’m still with you. ²⁶ However, the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything. He will remind you of everything that I have ever told you.

²⁷ “I’m leaving you peace. I’m giving you my peace. I don’t give you the kind of peace that the world gives. So don’t be troubled or cowardly. ²⁸ You heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away, but I’m coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.

²⁹ “I’m telling you this now before it happens. When it does happen, you will believe. ³⁰ The ruler of this world has no power over me. But he’s coming, so I won’t talk with you much longer. ³¹ However, I want the world to know that I love the Father and that I am doing exactly what the Father has commanded me to do. Get up! We have to leave.”