Old/New Testament
An act of love
14 1-2 In two days’ time the festival of the Passover and of unleavened bread was due. Consequently, the chief priests and the scribes were trying to think of some trick by which they could get Jesus into their power and have him executed. “But it must not be during the festival,” they said, “or there will be a riot.”
3-9 Jesus himself was now in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. As he was sitting at table, a woman approached him with an alabaster flask of very costly spikenard perfume. She broke the neck of the flask and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head. Some of those present were highly indignant and muttered, “What is the point of such wicked waste of perfume? It could have been sold for over thirty pounds and the money could have been given to the poor.” And there was a murmur of resentment against her. But Jesus said, “Let her alone, why must you make her feel uncomfortable? She has done a beautiful thing for me. You have the poor with you always and you can do good to them whenever you like, but you will not always have me. She has done all she could—for she has anointed my body in preparation for burial. I assure you that wherever the Gospel is preached throughout the whole world, this deed of hers will also be recounted, as her memorial to me.”
Judas volunteers to betray Jesus
10-11 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went off to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. And when they heard what he had to say, they were delighted and undertook to pay him for it. So he looked out for a convenient opportunity to betray him.
The Passover-supper prepared
12 On the first day of unleavened bread, the day when the Passover was sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples said, “Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
13-15 Jesus sent off two of them with these instructions, “Go into the town and you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him and say to the owner of the house to which he goes, ‘The Master says, where is the room for me to eat the Passover with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upstairs room all ready with the furnishings that we need. That is the place where you are to make our preparations.”
16 So the disciples set off and went into the town, found everything as he had told them, and prepared for the Passover.
The last supper together: the mysterious bread and wine
17-18 Late in the evening he arrived with the twelve. And while they were sitting there, right in the middle of the meal, Jesus remarked, “Believe me, one of you is going to betray me—someone who is now having his supper with me.”
19 This shocked and distressed them and one after another they began to say to him, “Surely, I’m not the one?”
20-21 “It is one of the twelve,” Jesus told them, “a man who is dipping his hand into the dish with me. It is true that the Son of Man will follow the road foretold by the scriptures, but alas for the man through whom he is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
22 And while they were still eating Jesus took a loaf, blessed it and broke it and gave it to them with the words, “Take this, it is my body.”
23-25 Then he took a cup, and after thanking God, he gave it to them, and they drank from it, and he said to them “This is my blood which is shed for many in the new agreement. I tell you truly I will drink no more wine until the day comes when I drink it fresh in the kingdom of God!”
26 Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.
The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.