Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

³¹ The day will come, says the Lord, when I will make a new contract with the people of Israel and Judah. ³² It won’t be like the one I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a contract they broke, forcing me to reject them,^[a] says the Lord. ³³ But this is the new contract I will make with them: I will inscribe my laws upon their hearts,^[b] so that they shall want to honor me; then they shall truly be my people and I will be their God. ³⁴ At that time it will no longer be necessary to admonish one another to know the Lord. For everyone, both great and small, shall really know me then, says the Lord, and I will forgive and forget their sins.

51 Written after Nathan the prophet had come to inform David of God’s judgment against him because of his adultery with Bathsheba, and his murder of Uriah, her husband.

O loving and kind God, have mercy. Have pity upon me and take away the awful stain of my transgressions. ² Oh, wash me, cleanse me from this guilt. Let me be pure again. ³ For I admit my shameful deed—it haunts me day and night. ⁴ It is against you and you alone I sinned and did this terrible thing. You saw it all, and your sentence against me is just. ⁵ But I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. ⁶ You deserve honesty from the heart; yes, utter sincerity and truthfulness. Oh, give me this wisdom.

⁷ Sprinkle me with the cleansing blood^[a] and I shall be clean again. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. ⁸ And after you have punished me, give me back my joy again. ⁹ Don’t keep looking at my sins—erase them from your sight. ¹⁰ Create in me a new, clean heart, O God, filled with clean thoughts and right desires. ¹¹ Don’t toss me aside, banished forever from your presence. Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

⁹ How can a young man stay pure? By reading your Word and following its rules. ¹⁰ I have tried my best to find you—don’t let me wander off from your instructions. ¹¹ I have thought much about your words and stored them in my heart so that they would hold me back from sin.

¹² Blessed Lord, teach me your rules. ¹³ I have recited your laws ¹⁴ and rejoiced in them more than in riches. ¹⁵ I will meditate upon them and give them my full respect. ¹⁶ I will delight in them and not forget them.

⁵ That is why Christ did not elect himself to the honor of being High Priest; no, he was chosen by God. God said to him, “My Son, today I have honored you.”^{[a] 6} And another time God said to him, “You have been chosen to be a priest forever, with the same rank as Melchizedek.”

⁷ Yet while Christ was here on earth he pleaded with God, praying with tears and agony of soul to the only one who would save him from premature^[b] death. And God heard his prayers because of his strong desire to obey God at all times.

⁸ And even though Jesus was God’s Son, he had to learn from experience what it was like to obey when obeying meant suffering. ⁹ It was after he had proved himself perfect in this experience that Jesus became the Giver of eternal salvation to all those who obey him. ¹⁰ For remember that God has chosen him to be a High Priest with the same rank as Melchizedek.

²⁰ Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem to attend the Passover ²¹ paid a visit to Philip,^[a] who was from Bethsaida, and said, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.” ²² Philip told Andrew about it, and they went together to ask Jesus.

^23-24 Jesus replied that the time had come for him to return to his glory in heaven, and that “I must fall and die like a kernel of wheat that falls into the furrows of the earth. Unless I die I will be alone—a single seed. But my death will produce many new wheat kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. ²⁵ If you love your life down here—you will lose it. If you despise your life down here—you will exchange it for eternal glory.

²⁶ “If these Greeks^[b] want to be my disciples, tell them to come and follow me, for my servants must be where I am. And if they follow me, the Father will honor them. ²⁷ Now my soul is deeply troubled. Shall I pray, ‘Father, save me from what lies ahead’? But that is the very reason why I came! ²⁸ Father, bring glory and honor to your name.”

Then a voice spoke from heaven saying, “I have already done this, and I will do it again.” ²⁹ When the crowd heard the voice, some of them thought it was thunder, while others declared an angel had spoken to him.

³⁰ Then Jesus told them, “The voice was for your benefit, not mine. ³¹ The time of judgment for the world has come—and the time when Satan,^[c] the prince of this world, shall be cast out. ³² And when I am lifted up on the cross,^[d] I will draw everyone to me.” ³³ He said this to indicate how he was going to die.