Jesus is crucified

After they had arrested him, the men took Jesus to the high priest’s house. His disciples were scared, so they all ran away. At dawn the next day, the chief priests and teachers of the law got together. “Are you the Son of God?” they asked Jesus. “Yes,” Jesus said. The people were horrified, because they thought he was telling them he was like God. They wanted to have Jesus killed, so they took him to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. He was the only one who could give a death sentence.

They told Pilate that Jesus was turning the people against him, although it wasn’t true. Pontius Pilate questioned Jesus and found that Jesus had done nothing wrong. But the chief priests and the teachers told the crowds in the streets that Jesus should be killed. They began to shout, “Crucify him!” During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Roman governor always freed a prisoner. So Pilate asked the crowd, “Whom shall I free? Jesus or Barabbas?” Barabbas was a murderer and a rebel.

The people shouted, “Let Barabbas go!” Pilate didn’t want to have Jesus killed. He didn’t want to sentence an innocent man to death. So Pilate said he was going to have Jesus whipped. But the crowd kept on shouting, “Crucify him!”

Eventually, Pilate gave in to the crowd. The soldiers gave Jesus a red robe and put a crown of thorns on his head. They made fun of him. Then they took the robe off him and whipped him. After that, they gave Jesus one of the heavy beams of his cross to carry, and they took him to a place called Golgotha. There they nailed him to a cross with two criminals. This was the way the Romans executed people who had committed the worst crimes. Jesus prayed for his enemies, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.” Jesus’ mother stood near his cross with her friends. When Jesus saw her, he spoke to his disciple John. John was also among the group of friends. Jesus said to his mother, “Dear Mother, John will look after you like a son.” He said to John, “Please look after my mother.” And from that day, Mary lived in John’s house. Jesus hung on the cross for many hours. At noon, the sky turned dark. It stayed dark for three hours. Then Jesus cried out, “Father, I give my life to you.” And then he died.

Some of Jesus’ friends were watching from a distance. They were very sad.

Matthew 26 – 27 Mark 14 – 15 Luke 22 – 23 John 18 – 19