Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The first Passover meal

12 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the country of Egypt. ² He said, ‘This month will be the first month of each year for you. ³ Tell all the Israelite people to do this on the tenth day of this month: Each man must choose a lamb to kill as a sacrifice for his family. That will be one lamb for each home. ⁴ But the family may be too small to eat a whole lamb. Then they must share a lamb with another family that lives near. You must decide how much each person can eat and then count the number of people.

⁵ The lamb that you choose must have nothing wrong with it. It must be a male lamb that is one year old. It can be either a young sheep or a young goat.

⁶ Keep the lamb safe until the 14th day of this month. Then every Israelite family must kill their lamb in the evening. ⁷ They must take some of its blood. They must put the blood on the wood that is round the door of their house. They must put it on each side of the door and above the door. They must do this in every house where they will eat a lamb. ⁸ That night, they must cook the meat over the fire. They must eat it immediately, with bitter herbs and with bread that has no yeast in it. ⁹ You must cook the meat before you eat it. Cook it over the fire. Do not cook it in water. Cook the whole lamb, with its head, its legs and the inside parts of its body. ¹⁰ You must eat all the meat before morning arrives. If some of it still remains in the morning, then you must burn it.

¹¹ This is how you must eat the lamb: Dress yourselves so that you are ready to travel. Put your shoes on your feet. Take your stick in your hand. Then eat the food quickly. This is the Passover meal which shows that you obey me, the Lord.

¹² On the night that you eat the Passover meal, I will travel through the country of Egypt. I will kill every firstborn son and every firstborn male animal. I will punish all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ When you put the blood round the doors of your houses, that will be a sign to show that you live there. When I see the blood on your house, I will pass over you.^[a] No trouble will hurt you, when I attack the people of Egypt.

¹⁴ In future years, you must remember this day as a special day every year. It will be a festival when you worship me, the Lord. You and your descendants must do this every year, for all time.

God saved me from death^[a]

²³ This is the message that I received from the Lord. I then told it to you.

This is what happened on the night that Jesus' enemies took hold of him. The Lord Jesus picked up some bread to eat with his disciples. ²⁴ He thanked God for the bread and then he broke it into pieces. He said: ‘This is my body that I give to save you. Eat this bread, so that you remember me.’

²⁵ After they had eaten supper, Jesus took a cup of wine. He spoke to his disciples again. He said, ‘This cup shows my blood that will pour out when I die. God now makes a new agreement to save people because of my death. Whenever you drink from the cup in this way, do it to remember me.’

²⁶ Every time that you eat bread and you drink from the cup like this, you are showing something. You are showing people what the Lord's death means. You should continue to do this until he returns.

Jesus washes his disciples' feet

13 It was nearly time for the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that he would soon leave this world and to go to the Father. He had always loved those who were his own people in the world. He continued to love them to the end.

² Jesus and his disciples were eating supper. The Devil had already put an idea into the mind of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son. The idea was to sell Jesus to his enemies. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had given him power over everything. He knew that he had come from God. And he knew that he would soon return to God. ⁴ So, during the meal, he stood up. He took off the coat that he wore over his other clothes. He tied a piece of cloth round himself. ⁵ Then he poured water into a bowl and he began to wash the disciples' feet. Jesus made their feet dry with the cloth that was round him.

⁶ Jesus came to Simon Peter. Peter asked him, ‘Lord, will you really wash my feet?’ ⁷ Jesus answered him, ‘You do not understand now what I am doing. But you will understand in the future.’ ⁸ Peter said, ‘No! You will never wash my feet!’ Jesus answered, ‘If I do not wash you, you do not belong with me.’ ⁹ Simon Peter replied, ‘So Lord, do not wash my feet only! Wash my hands and my head too!’ ¹⁰ Jesus said, ‘A person who has washed his whole body is completely clean. He needs only to wash his feet. And all of you are clean, except one of you.’ ¹¹ Jesus knew already who would sell him to his enemies. That is why he said, ‘Not every one of you is clean.’

¹² When he had finished washing the disciples' feet, Jesus put on his coat. He returned to his place at the meal. He asked them, ‘I want you to understand what I have just done for you. ¹³ You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right. That is what I am. ¹⁴ I am your Teacher and your Lord, but I have washed your feet. So you also should wash each other's feet. ¹⁵ I have given you an example. You should do the same for others as I have done for you. ¹⁶ I tell you this: No servant is more important than his master is. No messenger is more important than the person who sent him with a message. ¹⁷ Now you understand these things. So you should do them, and God will bless you.’

Jesus' new rule

³¹ When Judas had left, Jesus said, ‘Now people will see how great the Son of Man is. Because of him, they will also see how great God is. ³² The Son will show how great God is. Then God will take the Son to himself and he will show how great the Son is. He will do that very soon.

³³ My children, I will be with you for only a short time now. You will look for me. But I tell you now what I told the Jews. You cannot go where I am now going. ³⁴ I give a new rule to you. Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you. ³⁵ In this way, everyone will know that you are my disciples. They will know it, if you really love each other.’