Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The sacrifice of the Messiah

¹¹ But when the Messiah arrived as high priest of the good things that were coming, he entered through the greater and much superior Tabernacle, not made with hands (that is, not of the present creation), ¹² and not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood. He entered, once and for all, into the holy place, accomplishing a redemption that lasts forever.

¹³ If the blood of bulls and goats, you see, and the sprinkled ashes of a heifer, make people holy (in the sense of purifying their bodies) when they had been unclean, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who offered himself to God through the eternal spirit as a spotless sacrifice, cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God!

The purpose of the blood

¹⁵ For this reason, Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. The purpose was that those who are called should receive the promised inheritance of the age to come, since a death has occurred which provides redemption from transgressions committed under the first covenant.

Mary and her ointment

12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany. Lazarus was there, the man he had raised from the dead. ² So they made a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was among the company at table with him.

³ Then Mary took a pound of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She anointed Jesus’ feet with it, and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the smell of the perfume.

⁴ At this, Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was going to betray him), spoke up.

⁵ “Why wasn’t this ointment sold?” he asked. “It would have fetched a year’s wages! You could have given it to the poor!”

⁶ (He didn’t say this because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. He kept the common purse, and used to help himself to what was in it.)

⁷ “Let her alone,” replied Jesus. “She’s been keeping it for the day of my burial! ⁸ You always have the poor with you, but you won’t always have me.”

Jesus enters Jerusalem

⁹ When the great crowd of Judaeans discovered that Jesus was there, they came to Bethany not just because of Jesus, but to see Lazarus, the one he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰ So the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus as well, ¹¹ because many of the Judaeans were distancing themselves on account of him, and were believing in Jesus.