M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Jesus is anointed at Bethany
14 Passover—the Feast of Unleavened Bread—was due in two days. The chief priests and the lawyers were plotting how to seize Jesus by a trick, and kill him.
2 “We can’t do it at the feast,” they said. “The people might riot.”
3 Jesus was in Bethany, at the house of Simon (known as “the Leper”). While he was at table, a woman came up with an alabaster pot containing extremely valuable ointment made of pure spikenard. She broke the pot and poured the ointment on Jesus’ head.
4 Some of the people there grumbled to one another.
“What’s the point of wasting the ointment?” they asked. 5 “That ointment could have been sold for three hundred dinars, and given to the poor.”
And they were angry with her.
6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why make trouble for her? She has done a wonderful thing for me. 7 You have the poor with you always; you can help them whenever you want to. But you won’t always have me.
8 “She has played her part. She has anointed my body for its burial, ahead of time. 9 I’m telling you the truth: wherever the message is announced in all the world, the story of what she has just done will be told. That will be her memorial.”
10 Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests, to arrange to hand Jesus over to them. 11 They were delighted with his proposal, and made an agreement to pay him. And he began to look for a good moment to hand him over.
The Last Supper
12 On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lambs were sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples said to him, “Where would you like us to go and get things ready for you to eat the Passover?”
13 He sent off two of his disciples, with these instructions.
“Go into the city, and you will be met by a man carrying a water-pot. Follow him. 14 When he goes indoors, say to the master of the house, ‘The teacher says, where is the guest room for me, where I can eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 He will show you a large upstairs room, set out and ready. Make preparations for us there.”
16 The disciples went out, entered the city, and found it exactly as he had said. They prepared the Passover.
17 When it was evening, Jesus came with the Twelve. 18 As they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “I’m telling you the truth: one of you is going to betray me—one of you that’s eating with me.”
19 They began to be very upset, and they said to him, one after another, “It isn’t me, is it?”
20 “It’s one of the Twelve,” said Jesus, “one who has dipped his bread in the dish with me. 21 Yes: the son of man is completing his journey, as scripture said he would; but it’s bad news for the man who betrays him! It would have been better for that man never to have been born.”
22 While they were eating, he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them.
“Take it,” he said. “This is my body.”
23 Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24 “This is my blood of the covenant,” he said, “which is poured out for many. 25 I’m telling you the truth: I won’t ever drink from the fruit of the vine again, until that day—the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus is arrested
26 They sang a hymn, and went out to the Mount of Olives.
27 “You’re all going to desert me,” said Jesus, “because it’s written,
I shall attack the shepherd
and then the sheep will scatter.
28 “But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”
29 Peter spoke up.
“Everyone else may desert you,” he said, “but I won’t.”
30 “I’m telling you the truth,” Jesus replied. “Today—this very night, before the cock has crowed twice—you will renounce me three times.”
31 This made Peter all the more vehement. “Even if I have to die with you,” he said, “I will never renounce you.”
And all the rest said the same.
32 They came to a place called Gethsemane.
“Stay here,” said Jesus to the disciples, “while I pray.”
33 He took Peter, James and John with him, and became quite overcome and deeply distressed.
34 “My soul is disturbed within me,” he said, “right to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.”
35 He went a little further, and fell on the ground and prayed that, if possible, the moment might pass from him.
36 “Abba, Father,” he said, “all things are possible for you! Take this cup away from me! But—not what I want, but what you want.”
37 He returned and found them sleeping. “Are you asleep, Simon?” he said to Peter. “Couldn’t you keep watch for a single hour? 38 Watch and pray, so that you won’t come into the time of trouble. The spirit is eager, but the body is weak.”
39 Once more he went off and prayed, saying the same words. 40 And again, when he returned, he found them asleep, because their eyes were very heavy. They had no words to answer him. 41 But the third time he came, he said to them, “All right—sleep as much as you like now. Have a good rest. The job is done, the time has come—and look! The son of man is betrayed into the clutches of sinners. 42 Get up, let’s be on our way. Here comes the man who’s going to betray me.”
43 At once, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a crowd, with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the legal experts, and the elders. 44 The betrayer had given them a coded sign: “The one I kiss—that’s him! Seize him and take him away safely.”
45 He came up to Jesus at once. “Rabbi!” he said, and kissed him.
46 The crowd laid hands on him and seized him. 47 One of the bystanders drew a sword and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his ear. 48 Then Jesus spoke to them.
“Anyone would think,” he said, “you’d come after a brigand! Fancy needing swords and clubs to arrest me! 49 Day after day I’ve been teaching in the Temple, under your noses, and you never laid a finger on me. But the scriptures must be fulfilled.”
50 Then they all abandoned him and ran away.
51 A young man had followed him, wearing only a linen tunic over his otherwise naked body. 52 They seized him, and he left the tunic and ran away naked.
In the high priest’s house
53 They took Jesus away to the high priest. All the chief priests and the elders and legal experts were assembled. 54 Peter followed him at a distance, and came to the courtyard of the high priest’s house, where he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire.
55 The chief priests, and all the Sanhedrin, looked for evidence for a capital charge against Jesus, but they didn’t find any. 56 Several people invented fictitious charges against him, but their evidence didn’t agree. 57 Then some stood up with this fabricated charge: 58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this Temple, which human hands have made, and in three days I’ll build another, made without human hands.’ ”
59 But even so their evidence didn’t agree.
60 Then the high priest got up in front of them all and interrogated Jesus.
“Haven’t you got any answer about whatever it is these people are testifying against you?”
61 Jesus remained silent, and didn’t answer a word.
Once more the high priest questioned him. “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
62 “I am,” replied Jesus, “and you will see ‘the son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.’ ”
63 “Why do we need any more evidence?” shouted the high priest, tearing his clothes. 64 “You heard the blasphemy! What’s your verdict?”
They all agreed on their judgment: he deserved to die.
65 Some of them began to spit at him. They blindfolded him and hit him, and said, “Prophesy!” And the servants took charge of him and beat him.
66 Peter, meanwhile, was below in the courtyard. One of the high priest’s servant-girls came up 67 and saw him warming himself. She looked closely at him, and said, “You were with Jesus the Nazarene as well, weren’t you?”
68 “I don’t know what on earth you’re talking about,” replied Peter.
He went outside into the forecourt, and the cock crowed.
69 The servant-girl saw him, and once more began to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70 But Peter again denied it.
A little while later the bystanders said again to Peter, “You really are one of them, aren’t you? You’re a Galilean!”
71 At that he began to curse and swear, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.” 72 And immediately the cock crowed for the second time. Then Peter remembered the words that Jesus had said to him: “Before the cock crows twice, you will renounce me three times.” And he burst into tears.
The weak and the strong
14 Welcome someone who is weak in faith, but not in order to have disputes on difficult points. 2 One person believes it is all right to eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats should not despise the one who doesn’t, and the one who doesn’t should not condemn the one who does—because God has welcomed them.
4 Who do you think you are to judge someone else’s servants? They stand or fall before their own master. And stand they will, because the master can make them stand.
5 One person reckons one day more important than another. Someone else regards all days as equally important. Each person must make up their own mind. 6 The one who celebrates the day does so in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, does so in honor of the Lord, and gives thanks to God; the one who does not eat abstains in honor of the Lord, and gives thanks to God.
The final judgment is the only one that counts
7 We none of us live to ourselves; we none of us die to ourselves. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, then, whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Lord. 9 That is why the Messiah died and came back to life, so that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 You, then: why do you condemn your fellow Christian? Or you: why do you despise a fellow Christian? We must all appear before the judgment seat of God, 11 as the Bible says:
As I live, says the Lord, to me every knee shall bow,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.
12 So then, we must each give an account of ourselves to God.
The way of love and peace
13 Do not, then, pass judgment on one another any longer. If you want to exercise your judgment, do so on this question: how to avoid placing obstacles or stumbling blocks in front of a fellow family member.
14 I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself, except that some things do become unclean for the person who regards them as such. 15 For if your brother or sister is being harmed by what you eat, you are no longer behaving in accordance with love. Don’t let your food destroy someone for whom the Messiah died!
16 So don’t let something that is good for you make other people blaspheme. 17 God’s kingdom, you see, isn’t about food and drink, but about justice, peace, and joy in the holy spirit. 18 Anyone who serves the Messiah like this pleases God and deserves respect from other people. 19 So, then, let’s find and follow the way of peace, and discover how to build each other up. 20 Don’t pull down God’s work on account of food. Everything is pure, but it becomes evil for anyone who causes offense when they eat. 21 It is good not to eat meat, or drink wine, or anything else which makes your fellow Christian stumble.
22 Hold firmly to the faith which you have as a matter between yourself and God. When you’ve thought something through, and can go ahead without passing judgment on yourself, God’s blessing on you! 23 But anyone who doubts is condemned even in the act of eating, because it doesn’t spring from faith. Whatever is not of faith is sin.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.