Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

then he adds:

¹⁸ Where these are put away, there is no longer a sacrifice for sin.

So—come to worship!

¹⁹ So then, my brothers and sisters, we have boldness to go into the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus. ²⁰ He has inaugurated a brand new, living path through the curtain (that is, his earthly body). ²¹ We have a high priest who is over God’s house. ²² Let us therefore come to worship, with a true heart, in complete assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from a bad conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

²³ Let us hold on tightly to our confession of hope, without being diverted; the one who announced the message to us is trustworthy! ²⁴ Let us, as well, stir up one another’s minds to energetic effort in love and good works. ²⁵ We mustn’t neglect meeting together, as some are now doing. Instead, we must encourage one another, and all the more as you can see the great day coming closer.

The sympathetic high priest

¹⁴ Well, then, since we have a great high priest who has gone right through the heavens, Jesus, God’s son, let us hold on firmly to our confession of faith. ¹⁵ For we don’t have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then come boldly to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us at the moment when we need it.

⁷ During the time of Jesus’ earthly life, he offered up prayers and supplications, with loud shouts and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death. He was heard because of his devotion. ⁸ Son though he was, he learned obedience through what he suffered. ⁹ When he had been made complete and perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,

The arrest of Jesus

18 With these words, Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden. He and his disciples went in.

² Judas, his betrayer, knew the place, because Jesus often used it as a meeting-place with his disciples. ³ So Judas took a band of soldiers, with some servants of the chief priests and the Pharisees, and came there with torches, lights and weapons.

⁴ Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him. He went out to meet them.

“Who are you looking for?” he asked.

⁵ “Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered.

“I’m the one,” he said to them.

Judas, his betrayer, was standing there with them. ⁶ So when he said, “I’m the one,” they went back a few paces, and fell down on the ground.

⁷ Jesus repeated his question.

“Who are you looking for?” he asked.

“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.

⁸ “I told you, I’m the one!” said Jesus. “So, if you’re looking for me, let these people go.” ⁹ (He said this so as to fulfill the word he had spoken, when he said, “I haven’t lost any of the people you gave me.”)

¹⁰ Simon Peter had a sword. He drew it and hit the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.

¹¹ “Put your sword back in its sheath!” said Jesus to Peter. “Do you imagine I’m not going to drink the cup my father has given me?”

¹² So the band of soldiers, with the officer and the Judaean attendants, arrested Jesus and tied him up. ¹³ They led him off first to Annas; he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. ¹⁴ It was Caiaphas who had given advice to the Judaeans that the best thing would be for one man to die for the people.

Peter denies Jesus

¹⁵ Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That other disciple was known to the high priest; he went in to the high priest’s courtyard along with Jesus, ¹⁶ while Peter stood outside by the gate. So the other disciple, being known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the woman on the gate. Then he brought Peter inside.

¹⁷ The woman on the gate spoke to Peter.

“You’re not one of that man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked.

“No, I’m not,” he replied.

¹⁸ It was cold. The slaves and the attendants had made a charcoal fire, and they were standing round it, warming themselves. Peter was standing there with them and warming himself.

¹⁹ The high priest asked Jesus about his disciples, and about his teaching.

²⁰ “I’ve spoken to the world quite openly,” replied Jesus. “I always taught in the synagogue and in the Temple, where all the Judaeans gather. I didn’t say anything in secret. ²¹ Why are you asking me? There were people who listened to me. Ask them what I said to them. Don’t you see? They know what I said.”

²² When Jesus said that, one of the attendants standing there gave him a slap on the face.

“Is that how you answer the high priest?” he said.

²³ “If I’ve said something wrong,” replied Jesus, “give evidence about what was wrong with it. But if what I said was true, why are you hitting me?”

²⁴ So Annas sent him off, still tied up, to Caiaphas the high priest.

²⁵ Simon Peter, meanwhile, was standing there and warming himself.

“You’re not one of his disciples, are you?” they asked him.

He denied it. “No, I’m not,” he said.

²⁶ Then one of the high priest’s slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, spoke up.

“Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?” he said.

²⁷ Peter denied it once more. Instantly, the cock crowed.

Pilate and the Judaeans

²⁸ So they took Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, the governor’s residence. It was early in the morning. They didn’t themselves go inside the Praetorium. They were anxious not to pollute themselves, so that they would still be able to eat the Passover.

²⁹ So Pilate went outside and spoke to them.

“What’s the charge, then?” he asked. “What have you got against this fellow?”

³⁰ “If he wasn’t doing wicked things,” they replied, “we wouldn’t have handed him over to you.”

³¹ “Take him yourselves,” said Pilate to them, “and judge him by your own law.”

“We’re not allowed to put anyone to death,” replied the Judaeans. ³² (This was so that the word of Jesus might come true, when he had indicated what sort of death he was going to die.)

My kingdom is not from this world

³³ So Pilate went back in to the Praetorium and spoke to Jesus.

“Are you the King of the Jews?” he asked.

³⁴ “Was it your idea to ask that?” asked Jesus. “Or did other people tell you about me?”

³⁵ “I’m not a Jew, am I?” retorted Pilate. “Your own people, and the chief priests, have handed you over to me! What have you done?”

³⁶ “My kingdom isn’t the sort that grows in this world,” replied Jesus. “If my kingdom were from this world, my supporters would have fought, to stop me being handed over to the Judaeans. So then, my kingdom is not the sort that comes from here.”

³⁷ “So!” said Pilate. “You are a king, are you?”

“You’re the one who’s calling me a king,” replied Jesus. “I was born for this; I’ve come into the world for this: to give evidence about the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

³⁸ “Truth!” said Pilate. “What’s that?”

With those words, he went back out to the Judaeans.

“I find this man not guilty!” he said to them. ³⁹ “But look here: you’ve got this custom that I should let someone free at Passover-time. So what about it? Would you like me to release ‘The King of the Jews’?”

⁴⁰ “No!” they shouted. “We don’t want him! Give us Barabbas!”

Now Barabbas was a brigand.

Here’s the man!

19 So Pilate then took Jesus and had him flogged. ² The soldiers wove a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and dressed him up in a purple robe. ³ Then they came up to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they slapped him.

⁴ Pilate went out again.

“Look,” he said to them, “I’m bringing him out to you, so that you’ll know I find no guilt in him.”

⁵ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.

“Look!” said Pilate. “Here’s the man!”

⁶ So when the chief priests and their attendants saw him, they gave a great shout.

“Crucify him!” they yelled. “Crucify him!”

“Take him yourselves and crucify him!” said Pilate. “I find him not guilty!”

⁷ “We’ve got a law,” replied the Judaeans, “and according to that law he deserves to die! He made himself the son of God!”

No king but Caesar

⁸ When Pilate heard that, he was all the more afraid. ⁹ He went back into the Praetorium and spoke to Jesus.

“Where do you come from?” he asked.

But Jesus gave him no answer.

¹⁰ So Pilate addressed him again.

“Aren’t you going to speak to me?” he said. “Don’t you know that I have the authority to let you go, and the authority to crucify you?”

¹¹ “You couldn’t have any authority at all over me,” replied Jesus, “unless it was given to you from above. That’s why the person who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

¹² From that moment on, Pilate tried to let him go.

But the Judaeans shouted at him.

“If you let this fellow go,” they said, “you are no friend of Caesar! Everyone who sets himself up as a king is speaking against Caesar!”

¹³ So when Pilate heard them saying that, he brought Jesus out and sat down at the official judgment seat, called The Pavement (in Hebrew, “Gabbatha”). ¹⁴ It was about midday on the day of Preparation for the Passover.

“Look,” said Pilate, “here is your king!”

¹⁵ “Take him away!” they shouted. “Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Do you want me to crucify your king?” asked Pilate.

“We have no king,” the chief priests replied, “except Caesar!”

¹⁶ Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

The King of the Jews

So they took Jesus away. ¹⁷ He carried his own cross, and went to the spot called Skull Place (in Hebrew, “Golgotha”). ¹⁸ That was where they crucified him. They also crucified two others, one on either side of him, with Jesus in the middle.

¹⁹ Pilate wrote a notice and had it placed on the cross:

²⁰ Lots of the Judaeans read this notice, because the place where Jesus was crucified was close to the city. It was written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.

²¹ So the chief priests said to Pilate, “Don’t write ‘The King of the Jews’! Write that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’!”

²² “What I’ve written,” replied Pilate, “I’ve written.”

²³ When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, giving each soldier one part. When they came to his tunic, they found that it was a single piece of cloth, woven from top to bottom.

²⁴ “Let’s not tear it,” they said to each other. “Let’s throw lots for it, to see who’s going to have it.”

This was so that the Bible would be fulfilled, when it says,

And that’s what the soldiers did.

The death of Jesus

²⁵ Jesus’ mother was standing beside his cross. So was her sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, with Mary Magdalene too. ²⁶ Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple he specially loved, standing there.

“Mother,” he said. “Look! There’s your son.”

²⁷ Then he spoke to the disciple.

“Look!” he said. “There’s your mother.”

From that time, the disciple welcomed her into his own home.

²⁸ After this, Jesus knew that everything had at last been completed.

“I’m thirsty,” he said (fulfilling what the Bible had said).

²⁹ There was a jar there full of sour wine. So they put a sponge filled with the sour wine on a hyssop rod and lifted it to his mouth. ³⁰ Jesus drank it.

“It’s all done!” he said.

Then he let his head drop, and gave up his spirit.

Blood and water

³¹ It was the day of Preparation. The coming sabbath was a very special one, and the Judaeans were anxious that the bodies should not remain on the cross during the sabbath. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken, and their bodies taken away.

³² So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the men who were crucified with Jesus, first the one, then the other. ³³ But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers thrust a spear into his side, and blood and water came out. ³⁵ (The one who saw it is giving evidence, and his evidence is true. He knows he’s speaking the truth, so that you too may believe.) ³⁶ These things, you see, came about so that the Bible might come true: “No bone of his will be broken.” ³⁷ And, again, another passage in the Bible says, “They shall look on the one whom they pierced.”

The burial of Jesus

³⁸ After this, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate if he could take Jesus’ body away. He was a disciple of Jesus, but he kept it secret because he was afraid of the Judaeans. Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took his body. ³⁹ Nicodemus came too (the man who, at first, had visited Jesus by night). He brought a concoction of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds in weight. ⁴⁰ They took Jesus’ body, and wrapped it up in cloths with the spices, according to the normal Judaean burial custom.

⁴¹ There was a garden in the place where he was crucified. In the garden, there was a new tomb in which nobody had ever been buried. ⁴² So, because the tomb was nearby, and because of the Judaean day of Preparation, they buried Jesus there.