M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Christ is crucified. He commits his mother to John’s care, sheds his blood, and is buried.

19 Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. ² And the soldiers wound a crown of thorns and put it on his head. And they put on him a purple garment, ³ and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they struck him on the face.

⁴ Pilate went forth again and said to the people, Look, I am bringing him out to you so that you may know that I find no fault in him. ⁵ Then Jesus came forth wearing the crown of thorns and the robe of purple. And Pilate said to them, Behold the man!

⁶ When the high priests and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him! Pilate said to them, You take him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. ⁷ The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.

⁸ When Pilate heard these words, he was the more afraid, ⁹ and went again into the judgment hall and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰ Then Pilate said to him, Will you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have the power to crucify you, and have the power to set you free?

¹¹ Jesus answered, You could have no power at all against me unless it were given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you is more in sin.

¹² And from then on Pilate sought means to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying, If you let him go, you are not Caesar’s friend! For whoever makes himself a king, is against Caesar.

¹³ When Pilate heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down to give sentence in a place called The Pavement, but in the Hebrew tongue, Gabbatha. ¹⁴ It was the day before the Sabbath that falls in the Passover feast, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, Behold your king! ¹⁵ They cried, Away with him, away with him, crucify him! Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king? The high priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

¹⁶ Then Pilate delivered him to them, to be crucified.

¹⁷ And they took Jesus and led him away. And he bore his cross, and went out to a place called the Place of Dead Men’s Skulls, which is named in Hebrew, Golgotha. ¹⁸ There they crucified him, and two others with him, one on either side, and Jesus in the middle. ¹⁹ And Pilate wrote his title and put it on the cross. The writing was, jesus of nazareth, king of the jews. ²⁰ Many of the Jews read this title, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

²¹ Then the high priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Do not write King of the Jews, but that he said, I am King of the Jews. ²² Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written.

²³ Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat. The coat was without seam, woven throughout, ²⁴ and they said to one another, Let us not tear it, but cast lots who should have it. This was to fulfil the scripture that says: They parted my garments among them, and for my coat did cast lots. ²⁵ And the soldiers did such things indeed.

Then there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. ²⁷ Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her for his own.

²⁸ After that, when Jesus perceived that all things were performed, so that the scripture would be fulfilled, he said, I thirst! ²⁹ There was standing nearby a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and wound it about with hyssop, and put it to his mouth. ³⁰ As soon as Jesus had received of the vinegar, he said, It is finished! And he bowed his head and gave up the spirit.

³¹ The Jews then, because it was the day before the Sabbath, in order that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day (for that Sabbath day was a high day), requested Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken down. ³² Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other that was crucified with Jesus. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ But one of the soldiers thrust him in the side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.

³⁵ And he who saw it has borne witness, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he speaks the truth, so that you may believe also. ³⁶ These things were done so that the scripture would be fulfilled: Not one of his bones shall be broken. ³⁷ And again another scripture says: They shall look on him whom they pierced.

³⁸ After that, Joseph of Arimathea (who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews) asked Pilate if he could take down the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission.

³⁹ And Nicodemus came also, who at the beginning had gone to Jesus by night, and brought myrrh and aloes mingled together, about a hundred pound weight. ⁴⁰ Then they took the body of Jesus and wound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. ⁴¹ And in the place where Jesus was crucified was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre, in which no man had ever been laid. ⁴² There they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Sabbath eve. For the sepulchre was near at hand.

He warns them to beware of false teachers, whom he calls dogs, evil workers, and enemies of Christ. He reproves man’s own righteousness.

3 Moreover, my brethren, put your trust in the Lord. It grieves me not to write the same thing often to you, for to you it is a safeguard. ² Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of dissension.

³ For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and trust in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh – ⁴ though I have whereof I might be confident in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has reason to trust in the flesh, I have much more: ⁵ circumcised the eighth day, of the kindred of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of the Hebrews; as concerning the law, a Pharisee, ⁶ and as concerning zeal, I persecuted the congregation. And as for the righteousness that is in the law, I was unrebukable.

⁷ But the things that were of advantage to me, I counted worthless for Christ’s sake. ⁸ Yea, I think all things worthless for the sake of the supreme and precious knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. For him I have counted all things a waste, and do judge them but dung, so that I may win Christ, ⁹ and may be found in him – not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith that is in Christ. I mean the righteousness which comes from God through faith, ¹⁰ in knowing him, and the power of the resurrection, and the fellowship of his passions, so that I may be conformable to his death, ¹¹ if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.

¹² It is not as if I had already attained to it, or were already perfect. But I press on, if so be that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me. ¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself as having gotten it. But one thing I say: I forget that which is behind and reach for that which is ahead, ¹⁴ and press on to that mark appointed, to obtain the reward of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Let us therefore, as many as are sound in the faith, be so minded. And if you are otherwise minded, I pray God would open this to you.

¹⁶ Nevertheless, in that to which we have come, let us proceed by one rule so that we may be of one accord. ¹⁷ Brethren, be followers of me, and observe those who walk in the same way, since you have us for an example. ¹⁸ For many walk (of whom I have told you often, and now tell you weeping) as enemies of the cross of Christ, ¹⁹ whose end is damnation, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is to their shame – who are worldly-minded. ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven, from whence we look for a saviour, even the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who will change our lowly bodies so that they may be fashioned like his glorious body, by the power with which he is able to subdue all things to himself.