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fter 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!”
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