John 19-21 (Contemporary English Version)

John 19

 ¹Pilate gave orders for Jesus to be beaten with a whip. ²The soldiers made a crown out of thorn branches and put it on Jesus. Then they put a purple robe on him. ³They came up to him and said, "Hey, you king of the Jews!" They also hit him with their fists.

    ⁴Once again Pilate went out. This time he said, "I will have Jesus brought out to you again. Then you can see for yourselves that I have not found him guilty."

    ⁵Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said, "Here is the man!" ^{[a] 6}When the chief priests and the temple police saw him, they yelled, "Nail him to a cross! Nail him to a cross!"

   Pilate told them, "You take him and nail him to a cross! I don't find him guilty of anything."

    ⁷The crowd replied, "He claimed to be the Son of God! Our Jewish Law says that he must be put to death."

    ⁸When Pilate heard this, he was terrified. ⁹He went back inside and asked Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus did not answer.

    ¹⁰"Why won't you answer my question?" Pilate asked. "Don't you know that I have the power to let you go free or to nail you to a cross?"

    ¹¹Jesus replied, "If God had not given you the power, you couldn't do anything at all to me. But the one who handed me over to you did something even worse."

    ¹²Then Pilate wanted to set Jesus free. But the crowd again yelled, "If you set this man free, you are no friend of the Emperor! Anyone who claims to be a king is an enemy of the Emperor."

    ¹³When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out. Then he sat down on the judge's bench at the place known as "The Stone Pavement." In Aramaic this pavement is called "Gabbatha." ¹⁴It was about noon on the day before Passover, and Pilate said to the crowd, "Look at your king!"

    ¹⁵"Kill him! Kill him!" they yelled. "Nail him to a cross!"

   "So you want me to nail your king to a cross?" Pilate asked.

   The chief priests replied, "The Emperor is our king!" ¹⁶Then Pilate handed Jesus over to be nailed to a cross.

   Jesus was taken away,

Jesus Is Nailed to a Cross

(Matthew 27.32-44; Mark 15.21-32; Luke 23.26-43)

 ¹⁷and he carried his cross to a place known as "The Skull." ^[b] In Aramaic this place is called "Golgotha." ¹⁸There Jesus was nailed to the cross, and on each side of him a man was also nailed to a cross. ¹⁹Pilate ordered the charge against Jesus to be written on a board and put above the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." ²⁰The words were written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

   The place where Jesus was taken wasn't far from the city, and many of the Jewish people read the charge against him. ²¹So the chief priests went to Pilate and said, "Why did you write that he is King of the Jews? You should have written, `He claimed to be King of the Jews.' "

    ²²But Pilate told them, "What is written will not be changed!"

    ²³After the soldiers had nailed Jesus to the cross, they divided up his clothes into four parts, one for each of them. But his outer garment was made from a single piece of cloth, and it did not have any seams. ²⁴The soldiers said to each other, "Let's not rip it apart. We will gamble to see who gets it." This happened so that the Scriptures would come true, which say,

   "They divided up my clothes

   and gambled

   for my garments."

   The soldiers then did what they had decided.

    ²⁵Jesus' mother stood beside his cross with her sister and Mary the wife of Clopas. Mary Magdalene was standing there too. ^{[c] 26}When Jesus saw his mother and his favorite disciple with her, he said to his mother, "This man is now your son." ²⁷Then he said to the disciple, "She is now your mother." From then on, that disciple took her into his own home.

The Death of Jesus

(Matthew 27.45-56; Mark 15.33-41; Luke 23.44-49)

 ²⁸Jesus knew that he had now finished his work. And in order to make the Scriptures come true, he said, "I am thirsty!" ²⁹A jar of cheap wine was there. Someone then soaked a sponge with the wine and held it up to Jesus' mouth on the stem of a hyssop plant. ³⁰After Jesus drank the wine, he said, "Everything is done!" He bowed his head and died.

   

A Spear Is Stuck in Jesus' Side

 ³¹The next day would be both a Sabbath and the Passover. It was a special day for the Jewish people, ^[d] and they did not want the bodies to stay on the crosses during that day. So they asked Pilate to break the men's legs ^[e] and take their bodies down. ³²The soldiers first broke the legs of the other two men who were nailed there. ³³But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, and they did not break his legs. ³⁴One of the soldiers stuck his spear into Jesus' side, and blood and water came out. ³⁵We know this is true, because it was told by someone who saw it happen. Now you can have faith too. ³⁶All this happened so that the Scriptures would come true, which say, "No bone of his body will be broken" ³⁷and, "They will see the one in whose side they stuck a spear."

   

Jesus Is Buried

(Matthew 27.57-61; Mark 15.42-47; Luke 23.50-56)

 ³⁸Joseph from Arimathea was one of Jesus' disciples. He had kept it secret though, because he was afraid of the Jewish leaders. But now he asked Pilate to let him have Jesus' body. Pilate gave him permission, and Joseph took it down from the cross.

    ³⁹Nicodemus also came with about seventy-five pounds of spices made from myrrh and aloes. This was the same Nicodemus who had visited Jesus one night. ^{[f] 40}The two men wrapped the body in a linen cloth, together with the spices, which was how the Jewish people buried their dead. ⁴¹In the place where Jesus had been nailed to a cross, there was a garden with a tomb that had never been used. ⁴²The tomb was nearby, and since it was the time to prepare for the Sabbath, they were in a hurry to put Jesus' body there.

John 20

Jesus Is Alive

(Matthew 28.1-10; Mark 16.1-8; Luke 24.1-12)

 ¹On Sunday morning while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. ²She ran to Simon Peter and to Jesus' favorite disciple and said, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb! We don't know where they have put him."

    ³Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴They ran side by side, until the other disciple ran faster than Peter and got there first. ⁵He bent over and saw the strips of linen cloth lying inside the tomb, but he did not go in.

    ⁶When Simon Peter got there, he went into the tomb and saw the strips of cloth. ⁷He also saw the piece of cloth that had been used to cover Jesus' face. It was rolled up and in a place by itself. ⁸The disciple who got there first then went into the tomb, and when he saw it, he believed. ⁹At that time Peter and the other disciple did not know that the Scriptures said Jesus would rise to life. ¹⁰So the two of them went back to the other disciples.

   

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

(Mark 16.9-11)

 ¹¹Mary Magdalene stood crying outside the tomb. She was still weeping, when she stooped down ¹²and saw two angels inside. They were dressed in white and were sitting where Jesus' body had been. One was at the head and the other was at the foot. ¹³The angels asked Mary, "Why are you crying?"

   She answered, "They have taken away my Lord's body! I don't know where they have put him."

    ¹⁴As soon as Mary said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not know who he was. ¹⁵Jesus asked her, "Why are you crying? Who are you looking for?"

   She thought he was the gardener and said, "Sir, if you have taken his body away, please tell me, so I can go and get him."

    ¹⁶Then Jesus said to her, "Mary!"

   She turned and said to him, "Rabboni." The Aramaic word "Rabboni" means "Teacher."

    ¹⁷Jesus told her, "Don't hold on to me! I have not yet gone to the Father. But tell my disciples that I am going to the one who is my Father and my God, as well as your Father and your God." ¹⁸Mary Magdalene then went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord. She also told them what he had said to her.

   

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

(Matthew 28.16-20; Mark 16.14-18; Luke 24.36-49)

 ¹⁹The disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, and on the evening of that same Sunday they locked themselves in a room. Suddenly, Jesus appeared in the middle of the group. He greeted them ²⁰and showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they became very happy.

    ²¹After Jesus had greeted them again, he said, "I am sending you, just as the Father has sent me." ²²Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive anyone's sins, they will be forgiven. But if you don't forgive their sins, they will not be forgiven."

   

Jesus and Thomas

 ²⁴Although Thomas the Twin was one of the twelve disciples, he wasn't with the others when Jesus appeared to them. ²⁵So they told him, "We have seen the Lord!"

   But Thomas said, "First, I must see the nail scars in his hands and touch them with my finger. I must put my hand where the spear went into his side. I won't believe unless I do this!"

    ²⁶A week later the disciples were together again. This time, Thomas was with them. Jesus came in while the doors were still locked and stood in the middle of the group. He greeted his disciples ²⁷and said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and look at my hands! Put your hand into my side. Stop doubting and have faith!"

    ²⁸Thomas replied, "You are my Lord and my God!"

    ²⁹Jesus said, "Thomas, do you have faith because you have seen me? The people who have faith in me without seeing me are the ones who are really blessed!"

   

Why John Wrote His Book

 ³⁰Jesus worked many other miracles ^[g] for his disciples, and not all of them are written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you will put your faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. If you have faith in ^[h] him, you will have true life.

John 21

Jesus Appears to Seven Disciples

 ¹Jesus later appeared to his disciples along the shore of Lake Tiberias. ²Simon Peter, Thomas the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, and the brothers James and John, ^[i] were there, together with two other disciples. ³Simon Peter said, "I'm going fishing!" The others said, "We will go with you." They went out in their boat. But they didn't catch a thing that night.

    ⁴Early the next morning Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize who he was. ⁵Jesus shouted, "Friends, have you caught anything?"

   "No!" they answered.

    ⁶So he told them, "Let your net down on the right side of your boat, and you will catch some fish."

   They did, and the net was so full of fish that they could not drag it up into the boat.

    ⁷Jesus' favorite disciple told Peter, "It's the Lord!" When Simon heard that it was the Lord, he put on the clothes that he had taken off while he was working. Then he jumped into the water. ⁸The boat was only about a hundred yards from shore. So the other disciples stayed in the boat and dragged in the net full of fish.

    ⁹When the disciples got out of the boat, they saw some bread and a charcoal fire with fish on it. ¹⁰Jesus told his disciples, "Bring some of the fish you just caught." ¹¹Simon Peter got back into the boat and dragged the net to shore. In it were one hundred fifty-three large fish, but still the net did not rip.

    ¹²Jesus said, "Come and eat!" But none of the disciples dared ask who he was. They knew he was the Lord. ¹³Jesus took the bread in his hands and gave some of it to his disciples. He did the same with the fish. ¹⁴This was the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from death.

   

Jesus and Peter

 ¹⁵When Jesus and his disciples had finished eating, he asked, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than the others do?" ^[j] Simon Peter answered, "Yes, Lord, you know I do!"

   "Then feed my lambs," Jesus said.

    ¹⁶Jesus asked a second time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"

   Peter answered, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you!"

   "Then take care of my sheep," Jesus told him.

    ¹⁷Jesus asked a third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"

   Peter was hurt because Jesus had asked him three times if he loved him. So he told Jesus, "Lord, you know everything. You know I love you."

   Jesus replied, "Feed my sheep. ¹⁸I tell you for certain that when you were a young man, you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will hold out your hands. Then others will wrap your belt around you and lead you where you don't want to go."

    ¹⁹Jesus said this to tell how Peter would die and bring honor to God. Then he said to Peter, "Follow me!"

   

Jesus and His Favorite Disciple

 ²⁰Peter turned and saw Jesus' favorite disciple following them. He was the same one who had sat next to Jesus at the meal and had asked, "Lord, who is going to betray you?" ²¹When Peter saw that disciple, he asked Jesus, "Lord, what about him?"

    ²²Jesus answered, "What is it to you, if I want him to live until I return? You must follow me." ²³So the rumor spread among the other disciples that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say he would not die. He simply said, "What is it to you, if I want him to live until I return?"

    ²⁴This disciple is the one who told all of this. He wrote it, and we know he is telling the truth.

    ²⁵Jesus did many other things. If they were all written in books, I don't suppose there would be room enough in the whole world for all the books.