New Testament in a Year

Jesus tells the disciples what will happen

²⁷ Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘All of you will turn away from me. It will happen as the Bible says:

²⁸ Jesus then said, ‘But after that happens, I will become alive again. Then I will go to Galilee, and you will meet me there.’

²⁹ Peter said to Jesus, ‘Even if everyone else runs away, I will not leave you.’

³⁰ Jesus replied, ‘I tell you this: Even tonight, you will say that you do not know me. You will say that three times before the cockerel sings for the second time in the morning.’

³¹ But Peter said very strongly, ‘I will die with you if I need to. But I will never say that I do not know you.’ All the other disciples said the same thing.

Jesus prays in the garden called Gethsemane

³² Then they arrived at a garden called Gethsemane. Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ ³³ Jesus took Peter, James and John with him. He started to feel very sad and upset. ³⁴ He said to them, ‘I am very sad. I feel as if I could die because I feel so sad. Wait here and stay awake.’

³⁵ Jesus went a short way beyond them. He went down on the ground. He prayed that, if possible, God would save him from this time of trouble. ³⁶ He said, ‘Abba, my Father, you can do all things. Please take this great pain away from me. But I do not ask you to do what I want. Do what you want to do.’

³⁷ Jesus returned to his three disciples. Now they were sleeping. He said to Peter, ‘Simon, you are asleep! You could not stay awake for even one hour! ³⁸ You must keep awake and you must pray. Then you will not want to do something wrong. You really want to do the right thing, but your body is weak.’

³⁹ Jesus went away again and he prayed in the same words. ⁴⁰ Then Jesus returned again to Peter, James and John. He saw that they were sleeping. They could not keep their eyes open. They did not know what to say to him.

⁴¹ Then Jesus returned a third time to the disciples. He said to them, ‘You should not still be sleeping and resting. That is enough! The moment has arrived. Look! Someone will now give me, the Son of Man, to my enemies. ⁴² Stand up, we will go now. Look! The man who will give me to my enemies is here.’

Judas leads the men who will take Jesus away

⁴³ Jesus was still speaking when, immediately, Judas arrived. He was one of Jesus' 12 apostles. A crowd came with him. They were carrying swords and heavy sticks. The leaders of the priests, the teachers of God's Law and the important Jews had sent these men.

⁴⁴ Before this, Judas had told these men, ‘I will kiss one of the men. You must take hold of that man. Lead him away and do not let him go.’ ⁴⁵ When they arrived, Judas went immediately to Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said to Jesus. Then he kissed Jesus in a friendly way. ⁴⁶ So the men took hold of Jesus to lead him away. ⁴⁷ But a certain man who was standing there took hold of his sword. He hit the servant of the leader of the priests with it and he cut off the servant's ear.

⁴⁸ Then Jesus spoke to the crowd. He said, ‘You have come out here with swords and heavy sticks to take hold of me. Do you really think that I am leading people to fight against our country's rulers? ⁴⁹ No! I was with you every day when I was teaching people in the yard of the temple. You did not try to take hold of me then. But this must happen in the way that the Bible says it would happen.’ ⁵⁰ Then all Jesus' disciples left him and they ran away.

⁵¹ A certain young man was following Jesus.^[b] He was wearing only one piece of linen cloth to cover himself. The men tried to take hold of this young man. ⁵² But the young man left the piece of cloth behind and he ran away. So when he ran away, he was not wearing anything.

The most important priest asks Jesus questions

⁵³ The men took Jesus to the house of the most important priest. All the leaders of the priests met together there with the important Jews and with the teachers of God's Law.^[c]