It was now two days before the Festival of Passover and Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the teachers of the Law were looking for a way to arrest Jesus secretly and put him to death.

"We must not do it during the festival," they said, "or the people might riot."

The time was near for the Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover.

The chief priests and the teachers of the Law were afraid of the people, and so they were trying to find a way of putting Jesus to death secretly.

He said to them, "I have wanted so much to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer!

It was now the day before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. He had always loved those in the world who were his own, and he loved them to the very end.

You are to eat it quickly, for you are to be dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your walking stick in your hand. It is the Passover Festival to honor me, the LORD.

The blood on the doorposts will be a sign to mark the houses in which you live. When I see the blood, I will pass over you and will not harm you when I punish the Egyptians.

"Do not offer bread made with yeast when you sacrifice an animal to me. Do not keep until the following morning any part of the animal killed at the Passover Festival.

It was almost time for the Passover Festival, so Jesus went to Jerusalem.

The time for the Passover Festival was near, and many people went up from the country to Jerusalem to perform the ritual of purification before the festival.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, the man he had raised from death.

The Son of Man will die as the Scriptures say he will, but how terrible for that man who will betray the Son of Man! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born!"

Judas, the traitor, spoke up. "Surely, Teacher, you don't mean me?" he asked. Jesus answered, "So you say."

When the disciples all came together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be handed over to those

"Listen," he told them, "we are going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. They will condemn him to death

and then hand him over to the Gentiles, who will make fun of him, whip him, and crucify him; but three days later he will be raised to life."

"I have sinned by betraying an innocent man to death!" he said. "What do we care about that?" they answered. "That is your business!"

He is not here; he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was in Galilee:

'The Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, be crucified, and three days later rise to life.' "

Jesus and his disciples were at supper. The Devil had already put into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, the thought of betraying Jesus.

Judas, the traitor, knew where it was, because many times Jesus had met there with his disciples.