let these
things happen to me! Yet not my will, but thine, be done."

When he had prayed this way, he came back to Peter and James and John.
All three were fast asleep. Jesus woke Peter up, and said:

"What! Couldn't you stay with me for one short hour? Stay awake and
pray. Pray for yourselves. You are going to need strength. You are not
so strong as you want to be."

He left them again, and once more he fell on his knees and prayed,

"O my Father, if I must suffer these things, thy will be done."

When he returned, the disciples again were sleeping. They were too
tired to stay awake.

A third time he went apart from them and prayed. He prayed in the same
words he had used before. And suddenly he began to feel stronger. He
rose from his knees at last, and came back to the disciples. His voice
broke in upon their sleep: "Are you still sleeping? Well, you've slept
long enough! My time is up. I am going to be turned over to sinners
now! Get up! Look, the traitor is coming!"

While he was still speaking, a crowd of soldiers carrying swords and
clubs burst into the grove. Judas Iscariot was leading them. Judas ran
to Jesus and kissed him, saying,

"Hail, Master!"

Jesus answered, "Well, friend--what have you come to do?"

Then a band of men laid their hands on Jesus, and held him so that he
could not escape.

Peter was wide-awake by now. He had brought a sword with him. Pulling
it out, he cut off the ear of a man in the crowd.

Jesus said to Peter: "Put your sword away. My Father gave me these
things to suffer. He would save me now if I asked him. But that is not
the way it is to be."

Then Jesus turned to the crowd of soldiers, and said:

"Have you come to arrest me with swords and clubs, as though I were a
robber? Every day I was in the Temple teaching, and you could have
taken me then, but you never laid a hand on me. But this is what the
Scriptures said would happen to the Messiah."

The disciples could stand no more. They left Jesus standing there, and
in terror they fled away.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

14. The Last Day

The soldiers bound Jesus and led him back to Jerusalem. They took him
to the palace of the high priest. All the chief priests and rulers
were gathered there in a council meeting.

The council had already decided that Jesus would have to die, but it
was hard to find a reason for killing him. They had to prove that
Jesus had said or done something for which he co