Mark Chapter 14
Mark Chapter 14 is the longest chapter in the Gospel of Mark, having 72 verses. This chapter is a terrific way to practice reading to improve one's skills by the superior method of phonics.
As in virtually every other chapter of Mark, included in this Chapter 14 are several events that are remarkable in a good-humored way. Here, for example, the chapter begins with an account of a woman surprisingly dousing Jesus with a very expensive oil such that others at the dinner were indignant.
Key words practiced in this chapter include:
Phonetic words
- indignant
- onlookers
Sight words
- unleavened (short rather than long first "e")
Chapter 14
Two days later, it was time for the Passover holiday of unleavened bread, and the leading priests and scribes were trying to figure out how to catch Him by stealth and have Him executed. But they said, "Not on the day of the festival! Do you want to have a riot among the people?"
At that time, he was in Bethany at Simon the leper's house, having a meal. A woman came in with an expensive white crystal container of valerian oil, which she opened and poured over his head. Some of the onlookers were indignant, saying "Why did she waste that nice oil like that? We could have sold that for more than three hundred shillings and charitably donated the money to the poor!" They kept whispering about what a bad thing she had done. But Jesus said, "Leave her alone; why are you bothering her? She has done Me a favor. There will always be poor people around, and whenever you feel like helping them you can, but I am not going to be around forever. She did what she could: She came in advance to get my body ready for burial. Truly I tell you: Anywhere in the world that people preach the good news about me, they are also going to remember what she did and talk about it."
After that, Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, went to betray Jesus to the leading priests, who were happy to hear it and offered to pay him. So Judas thought about how it would be best to do the deed, and the best time to do it.
So on the first day of the Passover holiday, after they killed the lamb, the students of Jesus said to him, "Where do you want us to go and get this lamb ready for you to eat?" He answered by sending two of the students to go to town. He told them, "Go into the city, and you'll find a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him. When he goes into a house, tell the man in charge, 'Our teacher wants to know where the dining room is, so we can eat our lamb.' He will show you a large room on the second floor, furnished and already prepared. Prepare for us there." So the students went into town, and it happened exactly like he had told them, so they got the lamb ready to eat.
That evening, Jesus and the Twelve arrived. While they were sitting and eating, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, one of you who is eating with Me here will betray Me." They became very upset, and one after another said, "You don't mean me, do You?" "It's not I, is it?" Jesus told them, "It is one of you - the one who dips his bread in the bowl with me. The Son as man will die as the Scriptures said, but as for the man who betrays the Son as man, he would have been better off if he had never been born."
And while they were eating, Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and distributed it, saying "Take this and eat it. This is My body." And He took the cup, said a prayer, and passed it around, and everybody drank some. Then he said to them, "This is My blood of the New Testament, which I bled for the sake of many people. Truly I say to you, I shall not drink wine again until the day I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."
Then, after they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives, where Jesus told them, "All of you are going to have doubts about Me tonight. It is prophesied, 'I will kill the shepherd, and then the sheep will be scattered.' But I shall rise and I shall go into Galilee before you."
But Peter said, "Even if everyone doubts You, I never will." And Jesus said to him, "Hear me when I say that tonight, before the rooster crows twice, you are going to disavow Me three times." But Peter protested, with agitation, "Even if I end up having to die with you, I'll never disavow you." Everyone chimed in to say the same.
By now, they were at a place called Gethsemane. Jesus told his disciples, "Take a seat here, everyone. I want to pray." Then he went away from them, taking Peter, James, and John, and he became very upset and distressed. He said to them, "My soul is dying of sadness. Stay here and keep your eyes open." He wandered away a little, and fell to the ground. He prayed that if there were any possible way, he wouldn't have to go through what was to come. He said, "Oh Father, anything is possible for you. I don't want this fate. Take it away. But let it be what you want, not what I want." When he came back and found His students sleeping, he said to Peter, "Simon are you sleeping? Couldn't you keep your eyes open for an hour? Keep them open and pray, or else you might fail the test. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
Again, he went away and prayed, and he said the same thing again. When he got back, he found them asleep again (they were really tired), and they had no idea how to answer him. The third time he came back, he told them, "Just sleep now. I have prayed enough, and the time has come for the Son as man to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, we must go. Look, the betrayer is here."
And just as he was saying that, Judas came in, along with many armed men, sent by the leading priests, scribes, and elders. The betrayer had made an arrangement with them: "The man I kiss is the man you want. Take him and keep him safe." And as soon as he was there, he went directly to Jesus, saying "Rabbi! Rabbi!" and kissed him. And the armed people grabbed Jesus and took him away.
But one of the men who were standing by drew a sword and struck the high priest's slave, cutting off his ear. Jesus said, "Are you coming to get me with your swords and sticks as you would an insurrectionist? I was right there with you, teaching in the temple every single day, and you never came for me then. But the scriptures will have to be fulfilled." Then they all abandoned him and fled.
A youth there following him, with a linen sheet wrapped around his naked body, when he was grabbed by the men. He ran away naked, leaving the sheet behind. Then the armed men took Jesus to the High Priest, and all the leading priests, elders, and scribes were assembled there. Peter followed from a distance, all the way into the High Priest's palace, and he sat down at the fire with the attendants to keep warm.
The leading priests and the rest of the Sanhedrin asked for testimony against Jesus so they could put him to death, but found none. There was much false testimony, and the witnesses contradicted each other. Then a certain particularly deceitful witnesses said, "We heard Him say, 'I will destroy this handmade temple, and within three days I will build another without using My hands." But these witnesses also contradicted each other.
The High Priest stood up and asked Jesus, "Do you have nothing to say? Just what are they saying about you?" Jesus kept silent. The High Priest started interrogating him again: "Are you the Christ, the Son of the blessed?" Jesus answered, saying "I am, and you all are going to see the Son as man sitting at the right hand side of power and coming in the clouds of heaven." The High Priest ripped his shirt down the middle, saying "We don't need any more witnesses! You all heard the blasphemy, now how do you vote?" And they all condemned him to death.
Some of them spat on him. They put a bag over his head and punched him. They taunted him, "Tell us the future, Prophet!", and the attendants slapped him. Meanwhile, Peter was downstairs in the palace, when one of the high priest's maids came by. And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, "You were with Jesus of Nazareth." He denied it, saying, "I do not know what you are talking about." And as he went out to the porch, the rooster crowed. And another maid saw him, and said to the bystanders, "This is one of them." But he denied it again. And again the bystanders said to Peter, "Surely, you are one of them, for your accent is Galilean." But he began to swear, saying, "I do not know the man you speak of." And the cock crowed for the second time. Peter recalled what Jesus had told him, "Before the cock crows twice, you will deny Me three times." And he wept when he realized this.
See also
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