Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God’s Servant Depends on God

⁴ The Lord God gave me the ability to teach, so now I teach these sad people. Every morning he wakes me and teaches me like a student. ⁵ The Lord God helps me learn, and I have not turned against him. I will not stop following him. ⁶ I will let those people beat me and pull the hair from my beard. I will not hide my face when they say bad things to me and spit at me. ⁷ The Lord God will help me, so the bad things they say will not hurt me. I will be strong. I know I will not be disappointed.

⁸ God is with me, and he is the one who shows that I am innocent. So no one can say I am guilty. If anyone wants to try to prove me wrong, they should come here, and we will have a trial. ⁹ But look, the Lord God helps me, so no one can prove me guilty. As for them, they will all be like worthless old clothes, eaten by moths.

To the director: A song of David to help people remember.

We Also Should Follow Jesus’ Example

12 We have all these great people around us as examples. Their lives tell us what faith means. So we, too, should run the race that is before us and never quit. We should remove from our lives anything that would slow us down and the sin that so often makes us fall. ² We must never stop looking to Jesus. He is the leader of our faith, and he is the one who makes our faith complete. He suffered death on a cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing because of the joy he could see waiting for him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne. ³ Think about Jesus. He patiently endured the angry insults that sinful people were shouting at him. Think about him so that you won’t get discouraged and stop trying.

Jesus Tells Who Will Turn Against Him^(A)

²¹ After Jesus said these things, he felt very troubled. He said openly, “Believe me when I say that one of you will hand me over to my enemies.”

²² His followers all looked at each other. They did not understand who Jesus was talking about. ²³ One of the followers was next to Jesus and was leaning close to him. This was the one Jesus loved very much. ²⁴ Simon Peter made signs to this follower to ask Jesus who he was talking about.

²⁵ That follower leaned closer to Jesus and asked, “Lord, who is it?”

²⁶ Jesus answered him, “I will dip this bread into the dish. The man I give it to is the one.” So Jesus took a piece of bread, dipped it, and gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. ²⁷ When Judas took the bread, Satan entered him. Jesus said to Judas, “What you will do—do it quickly!” ²⁸ No one at the table understood why Jesus said this to Judas. ²⁹ Since Judas was the one in charge of the money, some of them thought that Jesus meant for him to go and buy some things they needed for the feast. Or they thought that Jesus wanted him to go give something to the poor.

³⁰ Judas ate the bread Jesus gave him. Then he immediately went out. It was night.

Jesus Talks About His Death

³¹ When Judas was gone, Jesus said, “Now is the time for the Son of Man to receive his glory. And God will receive glory through him. ³² If God receives glory through him, he will give glory to the Son through himself. And that will happen very soon.”