Read the Gospels in 40 Days
19 Then Pilate laid open Jesus’ back with a leaded whip, 2 and the soldiers made a crown of thorns and placed it on his head and robed him in royal purple. 3 “Hail, ‘King of the Jews’!” they mocked, and struck him with their fists.
4 Pilate went outside again and said to the Jews, “I am going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty.”
5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, “Behold the man!”
6 At sight of him the chief priests and Jewish officials began yelling, “Crucify! Crucify!”
“You crucify him,” Pilate said. “I find him not guilty.”
7 They replied, “By our laws he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever. 9 He took Jesus back into the palace again and asked him, “Where are you from?” but Jesus gave no answer.
10 “You won’t talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or to crucify you?”
11 Then Jesus said, “You would have no power at all over me unless it were given to you from above. So those[a] who brought me to you have the greater sin.”
12 Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders told him, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar’s. Anyone who declares himself a king is a rebel against Caesar.”
13 At these words Pilate brought Jesus out to them again and sat down at the judgment bench on the stone-paved platform.[b] 14 It was now about noon of the day before Passover.
And Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your king!”
15 “Away with him,” they yelled. “Away with him—crucify him!”
“What? Crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests shouted back.
16 Then Pilate gave Jesus to them to be crucified.
17 So they had him at last, and he was taken out of the city, carrying his cross to the place known as “The Skull,” in Hebrew, “Golgotha.” 18 There they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side, with Jesus between them. 19 And Pilate posted a sign over him reading, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and the signboard was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people read it.
21 Then the chief priests said to Pilate, “Change it from ‘The King of the Jews’ to ‘He said, I am King of the Jews.’”
22 Pilate replied, “What I have written, I have written. It stays exactly as it is.”
23-24 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they put his garments into four piles, one for each of them. But they said, “Let’s not tear up his robe,” for it was seamless. “Let’s throw dice to see who gets it.” This fulfilled the Scripture that says,
“They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my robe.”[c]
25 So that is what they did.
Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, Mary, his aunt, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside me, his close friend,[d] he said to her, “He is your son.”
27 And to me[e] he said, “She is your mother!” And from then on I took her into my home.
28 Jesus knew that everything was now finished, and to fulfill the Scriptures said, “I’m thirsty.” 29 A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so a sponge was soaked in it and put on a hyssop branch and held up to his lips.
30 When Jesus had tasted[f] it, he said, “It is finished,” and bowed his head and dismissed his spirit.
31 The Jewish leaders didn’t want the victims hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath at that, for it was the Passover), so they asked Pilate to order the legs of the men broken to hasten death; then their bodies could be taken down. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus; 33 but when they came to him, they saw that he was dead already, so they didn’t break his. 34 However, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water flowed out. 35 I saw all this myself and have given an accurate report so that you also can believe.[g] 36-37 The soldiers did this in fulfillment of the Scripture that says, “Not one of his bones shall be broken,” and, “They shall look on him whom they pierced.”
38 Afterwards Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jewish leaders, boldly asked Pilate for permission to take Jesus’ body down; and Pilate told him to go ahead. So he came and took it away. 39 Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night,[h] came too, bringing a hundred pounds of embalming ointment made from myrrh and aloes. 40 Together they wrapped Jesus’ body in a long linen cloth saturated with the spices, as is the Jewish custom of burial. 41 The place of crucifixion was near a grove of trees,[i] where there was a new tomb, never used before. 42 And so, because of the need for haste before the Sabbath, and because the tomb was close at hand, they laid him there.
20 Early Sunday morning,[j] while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone was rolled aside from the entrance.
2 She ran and found Simon Peter and me[k] and said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and I don’t know where they have put him!”
3-4 We[l] ran to the tomb to see; I outran Peter and got there first, 5 and stooped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but I didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went on inside. He also noticed the cloth lying there, 7 while the swath that had covered Jesus’ head was rolled up in a bundle and was lying at the side. 8 Then I went in too, and saw, and believed that he had risen[m]— 9 for until then we hadn’t realized that the Scriptures said he would come to life again!
10 We[n] went on home, 11 and by that time Mary had returned to the tomb and was standing outside crying. And as she wept, she stooped and looked in 12 and saw two white-robed angels sitting at the head and foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.
13 “Why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 She glanced over her shoulder and saw someone standing behind her. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him!
15 “Why are you crying?” he asked her. “Whom are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
16 “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned toward him.
“Master!” she exclaimed.
17 “Don’t touch me,” he cautioned, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them that I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.”
18 Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
19 That evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors, in fear of the Jewish leaders, when suddenly Jesus was standing there among them! After greeting them, 20 he showed them his hands and side. And how wonderful was their joy as they saw their Lord!
21 He spoke to them again and said, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and told them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you refuse to forgive them, they are unforgiven.”
24 One of the disciples, Thomas, “The Twin,” was not there at the time with the others. 25 When they kept telling him, “We have seen the Lord,” he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands—and put my fingers into them—and place my hand into his side.”
26 Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them and greeting them.
27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger into my hands. Put your hand into my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas said.
29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. But blessed are those who haven’t seen me and believe anyway.”
30-31 Jesus’ disciples saw him do many other miracles besides the ones told about in this book, but these are recorded so that you will believe that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing in him you will have life.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.