Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song for going up to the Temple.

²¹ So Moses called all the elders together and told them, “Get the lambs for your families. Kill the lambs for the Passover. ²² Take bunches of hyssop and dip them in the bowls filled with blood. Paint the blood on the sides and top of each doorframe. No one must leave their house until morning. ²³ At the time the Lord goes through Egypt to kill the firstborn, he will see the blood on the sides and top of each doorframe. Then he will protect^[a] that house and not let the Destroyer come into any of your houses and hurt you. ²⁴ You must remember this command. This law is for you and your descendants forever. ²⁵ You must remember to do this even when you go to the land the Lord is giving you. ²⁶ When your children ask you, ‘Why are we doing this ceremony?’ ²⁷ you will say, ‘This Passover is to honor the Lord, because when we were in Egypt, he passed over the houses of Israel. He killed the Egyptians, but he saved the people in our houses.’”

Then the people bowed down and worshiped the Lord.

The Jewish Leaders Plan to Kill Jesus^(A)

⁴⁵ There were many Jews who came to visit Mary. When they saw what Jesus did, many of them believed in him. ⁴⁶ But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus did. ⁴⁷ Then the leading priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the high council. They said, “What should we do? This man is doing many miraculous signs. ⁴⁸ If we let him continue doing these things, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away our Temple and our nation.”

⁴⁹ One of the men there was Caiaphas. He was the high priest that year. He said, “You people know nothing! ⁵⁰ It is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed. But you don’t realize this.”

⁵¹ Caiaphas did not think of this himself. As that year’s high priest, he was really prophesying that Jesus would die for the Jewish people. ⁵² Yes, he would die for the Jewish people. But he would also die for God’s other children scattered all over the world. He would die to bring them all together and make them one people.

⁵³ That day the Jewish leaders began planning to kill Jesus. ⁵⁴ So Jesus stopped traveling around openly among the Jews. He went away to a town called Ephraim in an area near the desert. He stayed there with his followers.

⁵⁵ It was almost time for the Jewish Passover festival. Many people from the country went to Jerusalem before the Passover. They went to do the special things to make themselves pure for the festival. ⁵⁶ The people looked for Jesus. They stood in the Temple area and asked each other, “Is he coming to the festival? What do you think?” ⁵⁷ But the leading priests and the Pharisees had given a special order about Jesus. They said that anyone who knew where he was must tell them so that they could arrest him.