The Gospel of Mark 14
14
Jesus is anointed at Bethany
1Passover—the Feast of Unleavened Bread—was due in two days. The chief priests and the lawyers were plotting how to seize Jesus by a trick, and kill him.
2“We can’t do it at the feast,” they said. “The people might riot.”
3Jesus was in Bethany, at the house of Simon (known as “the Leper”). While he was at table, a woman came up with an alabaster pot containing extremely valuable ointment made of pure spikenard. She broke the pot and poured the ointment on Jesus’ head.
4Some of the people there grumbled to one another.
“What’s the point of wasting the ointment?” they asked. 5“That ointment could have been sold for three hundred dinars, and given to the poor.”
And they were angry with her.
6“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why make trouble for her? She has done a wonderful thing for me. 7You have the poor with you always; you can help them whenever you want to. But you won’t always have me.
8“She has played her part. She has anointed my body for its burial, ahead of time. 9I’m telling you the truth: wherever the message is announced in all the world, the story of what she has just done will be told. That will be her memorial.”
10Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests, to arrange to hand Jesus over to them. 11They were delighted with his proposal, and made an agreement to pay him. And he began to look for a good moment to hand him over.
The Last Supper
12On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lambs were sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples said to him, “Where would you like us to go and get things ready for you to eat the Passover?”
13He sent off two of his disciples, with these instructions.
“Go into the city, and you will be met by a man carrying a water-pot. Follow him. 14When he goes indoors, say to the master of the house, ‘The teacher says, where is the guest room for me, where I can eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15He will show you a large upstairs room, set out and ready. Make preparations for us there.”
16The disciples went out, entered the city, and found it exactly as he had said. They prepared the Passover.
17When it was evening, Jesus came with the Twelve. 18As they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “I’m telling you the truth: one of you is going to betray me—one of you that’s eating with me.”
19They began to be very upset, and they said to him, one after another, “It isn’t me, is it?”
20“It’s one of the Twelve,” said Jesus, “one who has dipped his bread in the dish with me. 21Yes: the son of man is completing his journey, as scripture said he would; but it’s bad news for the man who betrays him! It would have been better for that man never to have been born.”
22While they were eating, he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them.
“Take it,” he said. “This is my body.”
23Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24“This is my blood of the covenant,” he said, “which is poured out for many. 25I’m telling you the truth: I won’t ever drink from the fruit of the vine again, until that day—the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus is arrested
26They sang a hymn, and went out to the Mount of Olives.
27“You’re all going to desert me,” said Jesus, “because it’s written,
I shall attack the shepherd
and then the sheep will scatter.
28“But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”
29Peter spoke up.
“Everyone else may desert you,” he said, “but I won’t.”
30“I’m telling you the truth,” Jesus replied. “Today—this very night, before the cock has crowed twice—you will renounce me three times.”
31This made Peter all the more vehement. “Even if I have to die with you,” he said, “I will never renounce you.”
And all the rest said the same.
32They came to a place called Gethsemane.
“Stay here,” said Jesus to the disciples, “while I pray.”
33He took Peter, James and John with him, and became quite overcome and deeply distressed.
34“My soul is disturbed within me,” he said, “right to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.”
35He went a little further, and fell on the ground and prayed that, if possible, the moment might pass from him.
36“Abba, Father,” he said, “all things are possible for you! Take this cup away from me! But—not what I want, but what you want.”
37He returned and found them sleeping. “Are you asleep, Simon?” he said to Peter. “Couldn’t you keep watch for a single hour? 38Watch and pray, so that you won’t come into the time of trouble. The spirit is eager, but the body is weak.”
39Once more he went off and prayed, saying the same words. 40And again, when he returned, he found them asleep, because their eyes were very heavy. They had no words to answer him. 41But the third time he came, he said to them, “All right—sleep as much as you like now. Have a good rest. The job is done, the time has come—and look! The son of man is betrayed into the clutches of sinners. 42Get up, let’s be on our way. Here comes the man who’s going to betray me.”
43At once, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a crowd, with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the legal experts, and the elders. 44The betrayer had given them a coded sign: “The one I kiss—that’s him! Seize him and take him away safely.”
45He came up to Jesus at once. “Rabbi!” he said, and kissed him.
46The crowd laid hands on him and seized him. 47One of the bystanders drew a sword and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his ear. 48Then Jesus spoke to them.
“Anyone would think,” he said, “you’d come after a brigand! Fancy needing swords and clubs to arrest me! 49Day after day I’ve been teaching in the Temple, under your noses, and you never laid a finger on me. But the scriptures must be fulfilled.”
50Then they all abandoned him and ran away.
51A young man had followed him, wearing only a linen tunic over his otherwise naked body. 52They seized him, and he left the tunic and ran away naked.
In the high priest’s house
53They took Jesus away to the high priest. All the chief priests and the elders and legal experts were assembled. 54Peter followed him at a distance, and came to the courtyard of the high priest’s house, where he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire.
55The chief priests, and all the Sanhedrin, looked for evidence for a capital charge against Jesus, but they didn’t find any. 56Several people invented fictitious charges against him, but their evidence didn’t agree. 57Then some stood up with this fabricated charge: 58“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this Temple, which human hands have made, and in three days I’ll build another, made without human hands.’ ”
59But even so their evidence didn’t agree.
60Then the high priest got up in front of them all and interrogated Jesus.
“Haven’t you got any answer about whatever it is these people are testifying against you?”
61Jesus remained silent, and didn’t answer a word.
Once more the high priest questioned him. “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
62“I am,” replied Jesus, “and you will see ‘the son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.’ ”
63“Why do we need any more evidence?” shouted the high priest, tearing his clothes. 64“You heard the blasphemy! What’s your verdict?”
They all agreed on their judgment: he deserved to die.
65Some of them began to spit at him. They blindfolded him and hit him, and said, “Prophesy!” And the servants took charge of him and beat him.
66Peter, meanwhile, was below in the courtyard. One of the high priest’s servant-girls came up 67and saw him warming himself. She looked closely at him, and said, “You were with Jesus the Nazarene as well, weren’t you?”
68“I don’t know what on earth you’re talking about,” replied Peter.
He went outside into the forecourt, and the cock crowed.
69The servant-girl saw him, and once more began to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70But Peter again denied it.
A little while later the bystanders said again to Peter, “You really are one of them, aren’t you? You’re a Galilean!”
71At that he began to curse and swear, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.” 72And immediately the cock crowed for the second time. Then Peter remembered the words that Jesus had said to him: “Before the cock crows twice, you will renounce me three times.” And he burst into tears.
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a. The New Testament for Everyone, Third Edition. Copyright © 2011, 2018, 2019 by
Nicholas Thomas Wright, The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. All rights reserved. Published by Zondervan, 2023.
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