He Shows Goodwill Tells the Good Story 18
18
BETRAYAL
1When he finished sending up his prayers, he and the ones who walked the road with him walked across the Valley of Darkness (Kidron) and entered a garden with many olive trees.
2Speaks Well Of (Judas), the betrayer, knew about this place because Creator Sets Free (Jesus) would often go there with his followers. 3The betrayer came into the garden, and with him came a band of lodge soldiers sent from the scroll keepers, head holy men, and Separated Ones (Pharisees), representing the elders of the Grand Council. The air was filled with the smell of burning torches as they entered the garden carrying clubs and long knives.
4Creator Sets Free (Jesus) knew all this would happen, yet he turned to the soldiers and asked, “Who have you come for?”
5 With one voice they answered back, “Creator Sets Free (Jesus) from Seed Planter Village (Nazareth)!”
The betrayer, Speaks Well Of (Judas), was standing there with the lodge soldiers when Creator Sets Free (Jesus) answered, “I am he!”
6At the sound of his voice they all moved back and fell to the ground.
7He asked them again, “Who have you come for?”
They answered, “Creator Sets Free (Jesus) from Seed Planter Village (Nazareth).”
8“I told you already, I am the one you are looking for,” he said. “Let these other men go.”
9He said this to fulfill his promise, “None of the ones you gave to me have been lost.”#18:9 John 6:39
10Right then, Stands on the Rock (Peter) drew his long knife from its sheath and cut off the right ear of the servant of the chief holy man. The servant’s name was Chieftain (Malchus).
11Creator Sets Free (Jesus) turned to Stands on the Rock (Peter) and cried out, “Enough of this! Put your long knife back into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup of suffering my Father has asked of me?”
CREATOR SETS FREE IS ARRESTED
12The lodge soldiers, along with their head soldier and the Grand Council representatives, took hold of Creator Sets Free (Jesus), tied him securely with cowhide strips, 13and took him first to Walks Humbly (Annas), one of the high holy men. He was the father of the wife of Hollow in the Rock (Caiaphas), the chief holy man 14who had advised the Grand Council by saying, “It will be better if one man dies for all the people.”#18:14 John 11:49-50
FIRST DENIAL
15Stands on the Rock (Peter) and one other follower#18:15 John, the author, is speaking of himself. had been watching from a distance. Since this follower was known by the chief holy man, he entered the courtyard of the house. 16But Stands on the Rock (Peter) stood outside the gate. This follower spoke to the gatekeeper, a young woman, who then let Stands on the Rock (Peter) in.
17She said to him, “Are you not one of his followers?”
“No!” he told her, “I am not.”
18The night was growing cold, so some of the men, along with the soldier guards from the lodge, built a fire in the courtyard to keep warm. Stands on the Rock (Peter) stood there with them, trying to stay warm.
CREATOR SETS FREE QUESTIONED
19Back inside, the chief holy man began to question Creator Sets Free (Jesus) about his followers and his teachings. 20Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said to him, “I have spoken openly to all, in the gathering houses and the sacred lodge. I said nothing in secret. 21Why ask me? Ask the ones who heard me. They will know.”
22One of the head soldiers struck him in the face and said, “Is that how you answer a chief holy man?”
23Creator Sets Free (Jesus) answered him back, “If I have spoken wrongly, tell me what I said wrong. If I spoke what is true, then by what right do you strike me?”
24Walks Humbly (Annas) decided to send Creator Sets Free (Jesus) to Hollow in the Rock (Caiaphas), the chief holy man. So they took him, still bound by ropes, to Hollow in the Rock (Caiaphas).
THE ROOSTER CROWS
25Outside in the courtyard Stands on the Rock (Peter) was still warming himself by the fire. The others asked him, “You are not one of his followers, are you?”
“No!” Stands on the Rock (Peter) denied. “I am not!”
26One of the servants of the chief holy man, a relative of the man whose ear had been cut off, looked at him, and said, “Yes, you are! I saw you in the garden with him!”
27Stands on the Rock (Peter) shook his head in denial—and right then a rooster began to crow.
TO THE PEOPLE OF IRON
28Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was taken from the house of Hollow in the Rock (Caiaphas) to the lodge of the governor of the People of Iron (Romans). The tribal leaders stayed outside, for they did not want to become ceremonially unclean by going inside. It was early in the morning, and many of them had not yet eaten the ceremonial meal of Passover.
29Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) came outside to meet them.
They took Creator Sets Free (Jesus) and stood him before Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate). He took a good long look at him, then turned back to the crowd.
“What has this man done wrong?” he asked them.
30“If he were not a criminal, would we have brought him to you?” they answered.
“Take him away!” 31Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) said to them. “Use your own law to decide what to do.”
“Our tribal law will not permit us to put him to death,” they answered.
32This proved that Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was right when he told them how he would die—by being nailed to a tree-pole—the cross.
ARE YOU THEIR CHIEF?
33Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) went back into his lodge and had Creator Sets Free (Jesus) brought to him, so he could question him in private.
Once inside, he said to him, “Are you the chief of the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel)?”
34“Is this your question,” Creator Sets Free (Jesus) asked, “or are you listening to others?”
35“I am not from your tribes,” Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) answered. “It is your own people and their head holy men who have turned you over to me. What have you done?”
36“My way of ruling is a good road. It is not in the ways of this world. If it were, my followers would have fought to keep me from being captured.”
37“So then, you are a chief,” he said back to him.
“It is you who have said it,” Creator Sets Free (Jesus) answered. “I was born for this and have come into the world for this purpose—to tell about the truth. The ones who belong to the truth will listen to my voice.”
38Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) shook his head and said, “What is truth?”
I FIND NO GUILT IN HIM
39Then Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) went outside to the tribal leaders and said to them, “I find no guilt in this man. By your own tradition we set free one criminal during your Passover Festival. Do you want me to release Creator Sets Free (Jesus), your chief?”
40“No! Not him,” the crowd roared back. “Release Son of His Father (Barabbas)!”
Son of His Father (Barabbas) was a troublemaker who had caused an uprising.
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He Shows Goodwill Tells the Good Story 18: FNVNT
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