JohnChapter 19

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¹Then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. ²The soldiers twisted thorny branches together to make a crown. They put it on his head. They dressed him in a purple robe. ³They kept coming up to him and saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they slapped him in the face. ⁴Once again Pilate came out. He said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you. I want you to know that I find no reason to charge him with a crime." ⁵Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!" ⁶As soon as the chief priests and officers saw him, they shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. I find no reason to charge him with a crime." ⁷The Jews answered, "We have a law. That law says he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God." ⁸When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. ⁹He went back inside the Praetorium. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus. But Jesus did not answer him. ¹⁰So Pilate said to him, "Won't you talk to me? Don't you know I have power to set you free? I also have power to crucify you." ¹¹Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin." ¹²From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free. But the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar! Anyone who claims to be a king is against Caesar." ¹³When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out. He sat down on the judge's seat. It was at a place called the Stone Pavement. In Hebrew it is called Gabbatha. ¹⁴It was the day of Preparation for the Passover. It was about noon. Pilate said to the Jews, "Here is your King!"a ¹⁵But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!" "Do you want me to crucify your King?" Pilate asked. The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." ¹⁶Then Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified. So the soldiers took him away. ¹⁷Jesus carried his own cross. He went out to a place called the Place of the Skull. In Hebrew it is called Golgotha. ¹⁸There they crucified him. They also crucified two other men with him. One was on each side, and Jesus was in the middle. ¹⁹Pilate also had a sign put up on the cross. It said: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. ²⁰Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. The sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. ²¹The chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Don't write, 'The King of the Jews.' Write that this man said, 'I am the King of the Jews.'" ²²Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." ²³When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes. They divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic. It had no seam. It was woven in one piece from top to bottom. ²⁴So they said to each other, "Let's not tear it. Let's cast lots to see who gets it." This happened to make the Scripture come true: "They divided my clothes among them. They cast lots for what I wore." So that is what the soldiers did. ²⁵Some women stood near the cross of Jesus. His mother was there, and so was her sister. Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene were there too. ²⁶Jesus saw his mother there. He saw the disciple he loved standing nearby. He said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." ²⁷Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. ²⁸After this, Jesus knew that everything was now done. And to make the Scripture come true, he said, "I am thirsty." ²⁹A jar of sour wine was sitting there. So they soaked a sponge in it. They put the sponge on a stalk of hyssop and lifted it up to his mouth. ³⁰Jesus drank the sour wine. Then he said, "It is finished." He bowed his head and gave up his spirit. ³¹It was the day of Preparation. The next day was a special Sabbath. The Jews did not want the bodies to stay on the crosses during the Sabbath. So they asked Pilate to have the men's legs broken and the bodies taken down. ³²So the soldiers came. They broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus. Then they broke the legs of the other man. ³³But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead. So they did not break his legs. ³⁴Instead, one of the soldiers stuck a spear into Jesus' side. Right away, blood and water flowed out. ³⁵The man who saw it has told about it, and what he says is true. He knows he is telling the truth. He tells it so that you also may believe. ³⁶These things happened so that the Scripture would come true: "Not one of his bones will be broken." ³⁷And another Scripture says, "They will look at the One they have pierced." ³⁸Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate if he could take away Jesus' body. Joseph was a disciple of Jesus. But he kept it secret because he was afraid of the Jews. Pilate said yes. So Joseph came and took the body away. ³⁹Nicodemus came too. He was the man who had come to Jesus at night before. Nicodemus brought a mix of myrrh and aloes. It weighed about seventy-five pounds. ⁴⁰The two men took Jesus' body. They wrapped it in strips of linen cloth with the spices. This was the Jewish way of burying people. ⁴¹There was a garden at the place where Jesus was crucified. In the garden was a new tomb. No one had ever been put in it. ⁴²It was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was close by. So they laid Jesus there.