Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany to the house of his friend, Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. While at the supper, Mary, the sister of Lazarus, came to Jesus and anointed him with a full pound of perfumed ointment and wiped it upon his feet with her hair.

At this, Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray Jesus, rebuked her saying, "This ointment ought to have been sold and the money given to the poor." This he said, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was in the habit of stealing from the purse which he carried for our Lord.

But Jesus silenced Judas, saying, "The poor will always be with you. Help them when it is in your heart to do so. Soon I shall no longer be with you. Mary has anointed me for my burial. What she has done will be taught wherever the gospel is proclaimed, as a memorial to her."

Outside, the chief priests and scribes plotted to kill Jesus and Lazarus, because many of the Jews put their faith in Jesus, when they saw that Lazarus was alive again.

Now, Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, and Judas went out to the priests and agreed to betray Jesus to them for 30 pieces of silver. From that time on, Judas looked for an opportunity to turn Jesus over to the priests when there was no crowd to protect him.

When Jerusalem was filled with people coming to celebrate the Passover feast, Jesus also went up to Jerusalem. Along the way, great crowds of people cut branches of palm trees and ran to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that comes in the name of the Lord."(Hosanna means 'Lord, save us.')

The Pharisees in the crowd told Jesus to silence his disciples, but he would not, saying, "If they hold their tongues now, the stones will cry out. " Earlier, John the Baptist had taught, "God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones."

Now Jesus, celebrating the first day of the feast with the twelve, rose from the supper and began to wash his disciples' feet. When he came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, "Lord, you must not wash my feet."

He said these words because foot washing was the task of the lowest servant. But Jesus replied, "Unless you let me do this for you, you will have no part of me."

After Jesus had washed their feet, he sat with them again and said to them, "I, your Lord, have done this as an example to you."

He told his disciples, "Tonight, you will all run away from me."

Peter said, "Lord, I will go with you both to prison and to death."

Jesus replied, "Peter, tonight you will deny me 3 times before the cock crows."

Then Jesus and his disciples went out to the mount of Olives and the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus, asking them to pray, withdrew from them and asked the Father to spare him from the coming ordeal of the cross. And yet, although he felt such anguish his sweat was like great drops of blood, he wished the Father's will more than his own.

Therefore, when the soldiers came to the garden to arrest Jesus, he did not resist them but said to Judas Iscariot, "Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?"

And yet the crowd was not satisfied, but demanded that Pilate crucify him. So he was brought out in his own clothes. And carrying his own cross, he was led away to be crucified together with 2 thieves. Along the way, Jesus fell and Simon of Cyrene was compelled to carry Jesus' cross because he no longer had the strength to do so.

While he was hanging on the cross, the crowds mocked Jesus saying, "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross," and "He trusted in God, let God deliver him."

From the sixth hour there was darkness over the entire land. At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" which means "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

Then one of them took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, put it on a stick and held it up for Jesus to drink.

When evening came, Joseph of Arimathaea took Jesus' body and laid it in his own tomb which he had recently carved out of rock and rolled a greatstone over the door and left.

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate and demanded that a guard be placed at the tomb lest the disciples steal the body and tell the people that Jesus rose from the dead. And so a watch was placed and the stone was sealed.

At dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb and an angel came to the tomb with the force of a great earthquake and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. The angel's appearance was so frightening that the guards fell over as if dead.The angel told the women, "Do not be afraid. Jesus has risen. Go into Galilee with his disciples and you shall see him."