Sunday Lectionary Readings

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The Collect

Wednesday in Holy Week
Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
Preface of Holy Week

Old Testament Reading

Isaiah 50:4-9
⁴" The Lord GOD has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned. ⁵The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away. ⁶I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. ⁷" For the Lord GOD will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed. ⁸He is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me. ⁹Surely the Lord GOD will help Me; Who is he who will condemn Me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment; The moth will eat them up. -- NKJV

Psalm

Psalm 69:7-15,22-23
⁷Because for Your sake I have borne reproach;
Shame has covered my face.

⁸I have become a stranger to my brothers,
And an alien to my mother's children;

⁹Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up,
And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.

¹⁰When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting,
That became my reproach.

¹¹I also made sackcloth my garment;
I became a byword to them.

¹²Those who sit in the gate speak against me,
And I am the song of the drunkards.

¹³But as for me, my prayer is to You,
O LORD, in the acceptable time;
O God, in the multitude of Your mercy,
Hear me in the truth of Your salvation.

¹⁴Deliver me out of the mire,
And let me not sink;
Let me be delivered from those who hate me,
And out of the deep waters.

¹⁵Let not the floodwater overflow me,
Nor let the deep swallow me up;
And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.

²²Let their table become a snare before them,
And their well-being a trap.

²³Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see;
And make their loins shake continually.

-- NKJV

New Testament Reading

Hebrews 9:11-15,24-28
¹¹But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. ¹²Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. ¹³For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, ¹⁴how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? ¹⁵And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. ²⁴For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; ²⁵not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another- ²⁶He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. ²⁷And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, ²⁸so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. -- NKJV

Gospel Reading

John 13:21-35
²¹When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me." ²²Then the disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom He spoke. ²³Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. ²⁴Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask who it was of whom He spoke. ²⁵Then, leaning back on Jesus' breast, he said to Him, "Lord, who is it?" ²⁶Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it." And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. ²⁷Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly." ²⁸But no one at the table knew for what reason He said this to him. ²⁹For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus had said to him, "Buy those things we need for the feast," or that he should give something to the poor. ³⁰Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately. And it was night. ³¹So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. ³²If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. ³³Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you cannot come,' so now I say to you. ³⁴A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." -- NKJV

- OR -

Matthew 26:1-5,14-25
¹Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, ²"You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified." ³Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, ⁴and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. ⁵But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people." ¹⁴Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests ¹⁵and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. ¹⁷Now on the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, "Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?" ¹⁸And He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, "My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples."'" ¹⁹So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. ²⁰When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. ²¹Now as they were eating, He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me." ²²And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, "Lord, is it I?" ²³He answered and said, "He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. ²⁴The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." ²⁵Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, "Rabbi, is it I?" He said to him, "You have said it." -- NKJV

The Preface

Preface of Holy Week
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. For our sins he was lifted high upon the cross, that he might draw the whole world to himself; and, by his suffering and death, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who put their trust in him.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version.
(Unless otherwise noted.)
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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