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The Jewish leaders wanted to kill Jesus
And you can read this story in Matthew 26:1-5 in Luke 22:1-2; and in John 11:45-53
1 Every year the Jewish people went to Jerusalem for the Passover and Flat Bread ceremonies.+*
But 2 days before the ceremonies started, the Chief Priests (Jewish ceremony leaders) and the law teachers made plans to arrest Jesus in a sneaky way and then kill him. But they were worried. 2 They said, “We have to kill this man, but if we do it at our ceremony time all the people will fight us.”
A woman put nice smelling oil on Jesus' head
And you can read this story in Matthew 26:6-13; and in John 12:1-8
3 At this time Jesus and his followers were staying in a town called Bethany, and they stayed with a man who was called Simon the Leper.† Jesus and his followers were eating supper when a woman walked into the room with a stone bottle that had special oil in it. That oil smelled really nice and it cost a lot of money. She broke the top off the bottle and poured the oil on Jesus' head.+ 4 Some of the people that were eating supper were very angry with the woman and said, “Why did she waste all that oil? 5 We could have sold that bottle for more than 300 pieces of silver money and then given that money to people that have nothing.” And they growled at the woman.
6 But Jesus said, “Stop it! Why are you giving her trouble? Leave her alone! She has done a very good thing for me. 7 You will always have people that have no money living in your community, and you can be kind to them any time you like. But I will not be with you much longer.+ 8 This woman has poured that oil on my body to get it ready to be buried. 9 What I say now is true. People will go everywhere in the world and wherever they go they will tell my story. And they will talk about what this woman has done for me today, and people will remember her.”
Judas Iscariot turned against Jesus
And you can read this story in Matthew 26:14-16 and in Luke 22:3-6
10 Later on, one of Jesus' close followers whose name was Judas Iscariot went to the Chief Priests and said, “I can help you arrest Jesus.”
11 Those leaders were very happy to hear what Judas said, and promised to give him some money. And so Judas started to work out how he could get Jesus arrested.
Jesus and his followers ate the Passover Supper
And you can read this story in Matthew 26:17-25, in Luke 22:7-14, 21-23 and in John 13:21-30
12 The first day of the Flat Bread ceremony was the same day that the lambs were killed for the Passover ceremony. On that day, Jesus' followers asked him, “Where do you want us to get our Passover supper ready?”
13 Jesus said to 2 of his followers, “Go into the town, and when you get there, you will meet a man carrying a billycan full of water. I want you to follow him. 14 He will go into a house, and there you will meet the man who owns the house. Say to him, ‘The teacher wants to eat the Passover supper with his followers in the room you keep for visitors. Can you show us where it is?’ 15 That man will take you up some stairs to the visitor's room. It is a big room and it is ready for you. That is where you can get our supper ready.”
16 The 2 men did as Jesus said. They met the man with the billycan and followed him to the house. They talked to the owner, and he showed them the room. Then they got the Passover supper ready.
17 Later that night Jesus and his 12 followers went up to the supper room. 18 As they ate their supper, Jesus said, “One of you eating this supper with me is going to turn against me and help my enemies arrest me.”+
19 All the followers were really sad when Jesus said this, and they all said, “No, not me!”
20 But Jesus said, “Yes, one of you eating this supper is going to do that. 21 In God's book it says that God's special man from heaven will be arrested and killed. But I tell you, God will punish the man who turns against God's special man and gets him arrested. That man will say to himself, ‘I wish I had never been born!’ ”
22 While they were eating their supper, Jesus picked up some bread and prayed. He said, “Thank you,” to God, and then he broke the bread and gave it to his followers. As he gave the bread to them he said, “Take this bread, this is my body.”
23 Then he picked up a cup of wine and prayed again. He said, “Thank you” to God, then he gave the cup to his followers and they all drank some of the wine. 24 When they all had a drink, Jesus said, “This wine is my blood. My blood is going to spill out of my body, and when it does, it will be a sign that God has made a new promise for lots of people.+ 25 And what I tell you is true, I will not drink any wine until the day when all of God's family sits down together. And we will all drink a new kind of wine.”
26 When the supper was finished, they all sang a song to God. Then they left the house and walked to the Mount of Olives.
Jesus talked straight to Peter
And you can read this story in Matthew 26:31-35, in Luke 22:31-34 and in John 13:36-38
27 Jesus said to his followers, “All of you are going to be frightened and run away from me. Someone wrote in God's book these words,
‘I will kill the man that looks after the sheep,
and the sheep will run away everywhere.’ +
28 Those words will come true. I am going to die and then come alive again, and after that I will go in front of you and meet you in Galilee.” +
29 But Peter said, “All the other followers might run away from you, but not me.”
30 Then Jesus said to him, “What I am going to say to you is true. Tonight, before the rooster calls out 2 times, you are going to say 3 times that you do not know me.”
31 Peter said in a strong way, “No. I am ready to die with you, and I will never say that I do not know you!” And all the other followers said the same thing.
Jesus prayed in the Garden of Geth-sem-a-nee (Gethsemane)
And you can read this story in Matthew 26:36-46 and in Luke 22:39-46
32 Jesus and his followers went to the Garden of Geth-sem-a-nee‡. That garden was on the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to his followers, “I want you to wait here. I am going to pray to God.”
33 But Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and as they walked together, he started to feel very sad and upset. 34 He said to them, “I am very sad and upset, I feel like I am dying inside. I want you to sit here and stay awake.”
35-36 Jesus left them, and walked away a little bit. He fell down onto the ground and started to pray. He said, “Father, is there any chance that I can miss out on this trouble? You can make anything happen. This trouble is like a cup of poison that I have to drink. You can take it away from me, but I know that you want me to have this trouble, and so I will do it.”
37 Jesus went back to where he left Peter, James and John, and he found that they were asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, how come you can't stay awake for one hour? 38 Stay awake and pray. Ask God to keep you from doing the wrong thing. I know that you want to do what is right, but you are weak.”
39 Jesus left his followers there and went away to pray again. He said the same words to God that he said the first time. 40 Again, Jesus went back to his followers and found them sleeping. They just could not stay awake, and they did not know what to say to him.
41 Jesus left them and prayed some more, and after he finished praying he went back and found them sleeping again. He said, “You just can't stay awake can you? You have had a rest now, and now it is time for my trouble to start. I am God's special man from heaven and look, the men that are going to arrest me are here. 42 Here comes the man that turned against me. Let's go and meet him.”
A big crowd of men arrested Jesus
And you can read this story in Matthew 26:47-56, in Luke 22:47-53 and in John 18:3-12
43 Straight away they saw Judas, one of Jesus' 12 followers, leading a big crowd of men. The Chief Priests, the law teachers and the Jewish elders had sent those men to arrest Jesus. All the men with Judas had long knives/swords and fighting sticks in their hands. 44 Before Judas and the crowd found Jesus, Judas had said to the men with him, “I will kiss a man on the side of his face. Arrest him. Tie him up and make sure he does not get away.” 45 So, when Judas saw Jesus, he walked up to him and said, “My teacher” and kissed him on the cheek. 46 And so the men with Judas arrested Jesus and tied him up.
47 But one of Jesus' followers pulled out his sword and cut off the ear of one of the men that worked for the High Priest.
48 Jesus said to the crowd of men, “You have all got long knives/swords and fighting sticks. It is like I have done something really bad. 49 I was teaching in the Temple every day, but you did not arrest me there. What you are doing to me now was written in God's book and it has to come true.”+
50 All Jesus' followers were frightened and they all ran away and left him behind.
51 There was a young man that was wearing a long calico coat. Someone grabbed his coat, 52 but it ripped and the young man ran away with nothing on.
The men took Jesus to the Jewish court
And you can read this story in Matthew 26:57-68, in Luke 22:54-55, 63-71 and in John 18:13-14, 19-24
53 The men that arrested Jesus took him to the house where the High Priest lived. He was waiting with all the other Chief Priests, lawmen and Jewish elders for the men to bring Jesus to them. 54 Peter followed the crowd. He followed them right inside the High Priest's yard and then he sat down next to the fire with all the men that worked there.
55 Inside the High Priest's house, all the other Chief Priests met with the members of the Jewish council. They were trying to find somebody to say that Jesus was going against God. But they could not find anybody. 56 There were some men that told lies about Jesus but their stories were all mixed up.
57 Some men got up and told this lie. 58 They said, “We heard this man say, ‘I will knock down God's Temple and build another one in 3 days. A lot of men built this Temple, but I will build a new Temple and I will not use my hands.’ ”+ 59 But even those men had their stories mixed up.
60 Then the High Priest got up in the meeting and said to Jesus, “All these men have told us what you have done. What are you going to say?” 61 But Jesus said nothing. He just kept his mouth shut.
Then the High Priest said, “All right, tell us this. Are you The Christ, the special man that God promised to send to us? Are you the son of God?”
62 Jesus said, “Yes, I am. I am God's special man from heaven. And one day you will all see me sitting there in heaven on the right-hand side of God the Powerful One. And one day you will see me come again in the clouds.”+
63-64 The High Priest got so wild that he ripped his clothes and said to the Jewish council, “Did you hear that? This man said that he is the same as God. We do not need anyone to say anything more. We have all heard what he said. So what do we say, did Jesus break our law?”
And they all said, “Yes, he broke our law. He has to die.”+
65 Some of the men at that meeting spat on Jesus. They tied a rag across his eyes so that he could not see, then they hit him with their hands and said, “Hey. You reckon that God gives you power to know things, so tell us, who hit you?” Then the guards grabbed Jesus and they hit him too.
Peter said, “I do not know Jesus”
66-67 While Jesus was inside the house, Peter sat outside next to the fire.
One of the girls that worked in the High Priest's house came along and saw Peter sitting there. She looked at him and said, “I think you were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.”
68 But Peter said, “No. I don't know what you are talking about.” Then he went to stand next to the gate, and a rooster called out.
69 That working girl saw Peter at the gate and again she said to people, “This man is one of Jesus' followers.”
70 But again Peter said, “No! I am not.”
Later on, the people at the gate said to Peter, “You talk like the people from Galilee. Jesus comes from Galilee, so you must be one of his followers.”
71 Peter got really wild, and he said, “I don't know what you are talking about! I am telling you, I do not know that man! I promise you. What I say is true, and if I am telling a lie, then I want God to put a curse on me!”
72 Straight away, the rooster called out again.
Then Peter remembered the words that Jesus said to him, “Before the rooster calls out 2 times tonight, you are going to say 3 times that you do not know me.” Peter was really sad and started to cry.
+ 14:1 Exodus 12:1-27 * 14:1 In God's book called Exodus, you can read how God's people were prisoners in Egypt. About 400 years later, God sent a man called Moses to save God's people and lead them to the land that God promised them. God said that all the Jewish people had to have ceremonies every year to remember how he got them free. The Jewish people called that ceremony time, “Passover and Flat Bread ceremony.” In those ceremonies the people picked a lamb or a young goat to kill and cooked it in a special way. And they made bread that has no baking powder in it. Then they had supper and ate the beef and bread together. They did this to remember what happened back in Egypt. † 14:3 At one time Simon had a bad skin sickness called Leprosy but now he was better. + 14:3 Luke 7:37-38 + 14:7 Deuteronomy 15:11 + 14:18 Psalms 41:9 + 14:24 Exodus 24:8; Jeremiah 31:31-34 + 14:27 Zechariah 13:7 + 14:28 Matthew 28:16 ‡ 14:32 Geth-sem-a-nee was a place where olives were crushed to get olive oil. + 14:49 Luke 19:47; 21:37 + 14:58 John 2:19 + 14:62 Psalms 110:1; Daniel 7:13 + 14:63-64 Leviticus 24:16