Mark 13–14

The Temple Will Be Destroyed

13As Jesus was leaving the Temple, one of his followers said to him, “Look, Teacher! How beautiful the buildings are! How big the stones are!”

²Jesus said, “Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone will be left on another. Every stone will be thrown down to the ground.”

³Later, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, opposite the Temple, he was alone with Peter, James, John, and Andrew. They asked Jesus, ⁴“Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are going to happen?”

⁵Jesus began to answer them, “Be careful that no one fools you. ⁶Many people will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the One,’ and they will fool many people. ⁷When you hear about wars and stories of wars that are coming, don’t be afraid. These things must happen before the end comes. ⁸Nations will fight against other nations, and kingdoms against other kingdoms. There will be earthquakes in different places, and there will be times when there is no food for people to eat. These things are like the first pains when something new is about to be born.

⁹“You must be careful. People will arrest you and take you to court and beat you in their synagogues. You will be forced to stand before kings and governors, to tell them about me. This will happen to you because you follow me. ¹⁰But before these things happen, the Good News must be told to all people. ¹¹When you are arrested and judged, don’t worry ahead of time about what you should say. Say whatever is given you to say at that time, because it will not really be you speaking; it will be the Holy Spirit.

¹²“Brothers will give their own brothers to be killed, and fathers will give their own children to be killed. Children will fight against their own parents and cause them to be put to death. ¹³All people will hate you because you follow me, but those people who keep their faith until the end will be saved.

¹⁴“You will see ‘a blasphemous object that brings destruction’ ⁿ standing where it should not be.” (You who read this should understand what it means.) “At that time, the people in Judea should run away to the mountains. ¹⁵If people are on the roofs ⁿ of their houses, they must not go down or go inside to get anything out of their houses. ¹⁶If people are in the fields, they must not go back to get their coats. ¹⁷At that time, how terrible it will be for women who are pregnant or have nursing babies! ¹⁸Pray that these things will not happen in winter, ¹⁹because those days will be full of trouble. There will be more trouble than there has ever been since the beginning, when God made the world, until now, and nothing as bad will ever happen again. ²⁰God has decided to make that terrible time short. Otherwise, no one would go on living. But God will make that time short to help the people he has chosen. ²¹At that time, someone might say to you, ‘Look, there is the Christ!’ Or another person might say, ‘There he is!’ But don’t believe them. ²²False Christs and false prophets will come and perform great wonders and miracles. They will try to fool even the people God has chosen, if that is possible. ²³So be careful. I have warned you about all this before it happens.

²⁴“During the days after this trouble comes,

‘the sun will grow dark,

and the moon will not give its light.

²⁵The stars will fall from the sky.

And the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’

²⁶“Then people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷Then he will send his angels all around the earth to gather his chosen people from every part of the earth and from every part of heaven.

²⁸“Learn a lesson from the fig tree: When its branches become green and soft and new leaves appear, you know summer is near. ²⁹In the same way, when you see these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to come. ³⁰I tell you the truth, all these things will happen while the people of this time are still living. ³¹Earth and sky will be destroyed, but the words I have said will never be destroyed.

³²“No one knows when that day or time will be, not the angels in heaven, not even the Son. Only the Father knows. ³³Be careful! Always be ready, ⁿ because you don’t know when that time will be. ³⁴It is like a man who goes on a trip. He leaves his house and lets his servants take care of it, giving each one a special job to do. The man tells the servant guarding the door always to be watchful. ³⁵So always be ready, because you don’t know when the owner of the house will come back. It might be in the evening, or at midnight, or in the morning while it is still dark, or when the sun rises. ³⁶Always be ready. Otherwise he might come back suddenly and find you sleeping. ³⁷I tell you this, and I say this to everyone: ‘Be ready!’ ”

The Plan to Kill Jesus

14It was now only two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The leading priests and teachers of the law were trying to find a trick to arrest Jesus and kill him. ²But they said, “We must not do it during the feast, because the people might cause a riot.”

A Woman with Perfume for Jesus

³Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, who had a skin disease. While Jesus was eating there, a woman approached him with an alabaster jar filled with very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She opened the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head.

⁴Some who were there became upset and said to each other, “Why waste that perfume? ⁵It was worth a full year’s work. It could have been sold and the money given to the poor.” And they got very angry with the woman.

⁶Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why are you troubling her? She did an excellent thing for me. ⁷You will always have the poor with you, and you can help them anytime you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸This woman did the only thing she could do for me; she poured perfume on my body to prepare me for burial. ⁹I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached in all the world, what this woman has done will be told, and people will remember her.”

Judas Becomes an Enemy of Jesus

¹⁰One of the twelve apostles, Judas Iscariot, went to talk to the leading priests to offer to hand Jesus over to them. ¹¹These priests were pleased about this and promised to pay Judas money. So he watched for the best time to turn Jesus in.

Jesus Eats the Passover Meal

¹²It was now the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread when the Passover lamb was sacrificed. Jesus’ followers said to him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover meal?”

¹³Jesus sent two of his followers and said to them, “Go into the city and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. ¹⁴When he goes into a house, tell the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says: “Where is my guest room in which I can eat the Passover meal with my followers?” ’ ¹⁵The owner will show you a large room upstairs that is furnished and ready. Prepare the food for us there.”

¹⁶So the followers left and went into the city. Everything happened as Jesus had said, so they prepared the Passover meal.

¹⁷In the evening, Jesus went to that house with the twelve. ¹⁸While they were all eating, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will turn against me—one of you eating with me now.”

¹⁹The followers were very sad to hear this. Each one began to say to Jesus, “I am not the one, am I?”

²⁰Jesus answered, “It is one of the twelve—the one who dips his bread into the bowl with me. ²¹The Son of Man will die, just as the Scriptures say. But how terrible it will be for the person who hands the Son of Man over to be killed. It would be better for him if he had never been born.”

The Lord’s Supper

²²While they were eating, Jesus took some bread and thanked God for it and broke it. Then he gave it to his followers and said, “Take it; this is my body.”

²³Then Jesus took a cup and thanked God for it and gave it to the followers, and they all drank from the cup.

²⁴Then Jesus said, “This is my blood which is the new ⁿagreement that God makes with his people. This blood is poured out for many. ²⁵I tell you the truth, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine ⁿ again until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

²⁶After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus’ Followers Will Leave Him

²⁷Then Jesus told the followers, “You will all stumble in your faith, because it is written in the Scriptures:

‘I will kill the shepherd,

and the sheep will scatter.’

²⁸But after I rise from the dead, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

²⁹Peter said, “Everyone else may stumble in their faith, but I will not.”

³⁰Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, tonight before the rooster crows twice you will say three times you don’t know me.”

³¹But Peter insisted, “I will never say that I don’t know you! I will even die with you!” And all the other followers said the same thing.

Jesus Prays Alone

³²Jesus and his followers went to a place called Gethsemane. He said to them, “Sit here while I pray.” ³³Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be very sad and troubled. ³⁴He said to them, “My heart is full of sorrow, to the point of death. Stay here and watch.”

³⁵After walking a little farther away from them, Jesus fell to the ground and prayed that, if possible, he would not have this time of suffering. ³⁶He prayed, “Abba, ⁿ Father! You can do all things. Take away this cup ⁿ of suffering. But do what you want, not what I want.”

³⁷Then Jesus went back to his followers and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you stay awake with me for one hour? ³⁸Stay awake and pray for strength against temptation. The spirit wants to do what is right, but the body is weak.”

³⁹Again Jesus went away and prayed the same thing. ⁴⁰Then he went back to his followers, and again he found them asleep, because their eyes were very heavy. And they did not know what to say to him.

⁴¹After Jesus prayed a…