Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 144[a]
Prayer for Victory and Peace
1 [b]Of David.
Blessed be the Lord,[c] my Rock,
who trains my hands for war
and my fingers for battle.
2 You are my safeguard[d] and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield in whom I take refuge,
the one who subdues nations under me.
3 O Lord, what is man that you care for him,
or the son of man that you think of him?[e]
4 Man is nothing more than a breath;
his days are like a fleeting shadow.[f]
5 [g]Part the heavens, O Lord, and descend;
touch the mountains so that they smoke.[h]
6 Flash forth lightning bolts and scatter my foes;
rout them with your arrows.[i]
7 Reach forth your hand[j] from on high;
deliver me and rescue me
from the mighty waters
and from the power of foreign foes
8 whose mouths utter lies[k]
and whose right hands are raised to swear to untruths.
9 [l]I will sing a new song to you, my God;
on a ten-stringed lyre I will play music for you.[m]
10 You grant victory to kings
and deliverance to your servant David from the cruel sword.[n]
11 Deliver me and rescue me
from the hands of foreign foes
whose mouths utter lies
and whose right hands are raised to swear to untruths.[o]
12 [p]May our sons in their youth
be like carefully nurtured plants,
and may our daughters be like pillars
designed to adorn a palace.[q]
13 May our barns be filled
with every kind of crop.
May our sheep increase by thousands,
by tens of thousands in our fields,[r]
14 and may our cattle be well fed.[s]
May there be no breach in our walls,
no going into exile,
no cries of distress in our streets.
15 Blessed are the people for whom this is true;
blessed[t] are the people whose God is the Lord.
Epilogue
Love Is as Strong as Death[a]
Companions:
5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness
leaning on her beloved?
Bridegroom:
Under the apple tree[b] I awakened you;
it was there that your mother conceived you,
and there where she who conceived you bore you.
Bride:
6 [c]Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal upon your arm.
For love is as strong as death,[d]
and ardor is as relentless as the netherworld.
Its flames are flashes of fire,
an unending blaze.[e]
7 Flood waters cannot quench love,
nor can torrents drown it.
If one were to offer all his wealth for love,
he would be regarded with contempt.
One Who Brings Peace[f]
Companions:
8 “Our sister is little,
and her breasts are not yet formed.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build a silver battlement upon it;
if she is a door,
we will board her up with planks of cedar.”
Bride:
10 I am a wall,
and my breasts are like towers.
So now in his eyes
I have become one who brings peace.
My Vineyard Is under My Control[g]
11 [h]Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon,[i]
and he entrusted that vineyard to tenants.
For its fruit each one would have to pay him
a thousand pieces of silver.
12 My vineyard[j] is under my control.
You, O Solomon, may have the thousand silver pieces,
and those who tend the fruit may have two hundred.
Bridegroom:
13 O you who dwell in the gardens,
my companions are listening for your voice;
let me hear it.
Bride:
14 Make haste, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle or a young stag
upon the spice-filled mountains.
45 One Man Must Die for the People.[a] This caused many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, to believe in him. 46 However, some of them went to the Pharisees and reported to them what Jesus had done.
47 As a result, the chief priests and the Pharisees summoned a meeting of the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will start to believe in him, and then the Romans will come and suppress both our temple and our nation.”
49 However, one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year,[b] said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 You do not seem to realize that it is better for us that one man die for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed.”
51 He did not say this on his own, but as the high priest that year he was prophesying that Jesus was to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation alone, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 53 And so from that day on, they plotted to kill him.[c] 54 As a result, Jesus no longer walked about openly among the Jews. He withdrew to a town called Ephraim[d] in the region bordering the desert, and he remained there with the disciples.
The True Passover That Brings About the Salvation of Humankind[e]
The Hour Has Come[f]
55 The Last Passover.[g]Now the Jewish Passover[h] was drawing near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover in order to purify themselves. 56 They kept looking for Jesus, and they asked one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? Will he come to the feast or not?” 57 Meanwhile, the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where he was should inform them so that they might arrest him.
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