M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Jesus before Pilate
15 The moment daylight came the chief priests called together a meeting of elders, scribes and members of the whole council, bound Jesus and took him off and handed him over to Pilate.
2 Pilate asked him straight out, “Well, you—are you the king of the Jews?” “Yes, I am,” he replied.
3-4 The chief priests brought many accusations. So Pilate questioned him again, “Have you nothing to say? Listen to all their accusations!”
5 But Jesus made no further answer—to Pilate’s astonishment.
6-9 Now it was Pilate’s custom at festival-time to release a prisoner—anyone they asked for. There was in the prison at the time, with some other rioters who had committed murder in a recent outbreak, a man called Barabbas. The crowd surged forward and began to demand that Pilate should do what he usually did for them. So he spoke to them, “Do you want me to set free the king of the Jews for you?”
10-12 For he knew perfectly well that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him through sheer malice. But the chief priests worked upon the crowd to get them to demand Barabbas’ release instead. So Pilate addressed them once more, “Then what am I to do with the man whom you call the king of the Jews?”
13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!”
14 But Pilate replied, “Why, what crime has he committed?” But their voices rose to a roar, “Crucify him!”
15 And as Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd, he set Barabbas free for them, and after having Jesus flogged handed him over to be crucified.
16-18 Then the soldiers marched him away inside the courtyard of the governor’s residence and called their whole company together. They dressed Jesus in a purple robe, and twisting some thorn twigs into a crown, they put it on his head. Then they began to greet him, “Hail, your majesty—king of the Jews!”
19-20 They hit him on the head with a stick and spat at him, and then bowed low before him on bended knee. And when they had finished their fun with him, they took off the purple cloak and dressed him again in his own clothes. Then they led him outside to crucify him.
21 They compelled Simon, a native of Cyrene in Africa, who was on his way from the fields at the time, to carry Jesus’ cross.
The crucifixion
22-30 They took him to a place called Golgotha (which means Skull Hill) and they offered him some drugged wine, but he would not take it. Then they crucified him, and shared out his garments, drawing lots to see what each of them would get. It was about nine o’clock in the morning when they nailed him to the cross. Over his head the placard of his crime read, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.” They also crucified two bandits at the same time, one on each side of him. And the passers-by jeered at him, shaking their heads in mockery, saying, “Hi, you! You could destroy the Temple and build it up again in three days, why not come down from the cross and save yourself?”
31-32 The chief priests also made fun of him among themselves and the scribes, and said, “He saved others, he cannot save himself. If only this Christ, the king of Israel, would come down now from the cross, we should see it and believe!” And even the men who were crucified with him hurled abuse at him.
33-34 At midday darkness spread over the whole countryside and lasted until three o’clock in the afternoon, and at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’
35 Some of the bystanders heard these words which Jesus spoke in Aramaic—Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?, and said, “Listen, he’s calling for Elijah!”
36 One man ran off and soaked a sponge in vinegar, put it on a stick, and held it up for Jesus to drink, calling out, “Let him alone! Let’s see if Elijah will come and take him down!”
37 But Jesus let out a great cry, and died.
38 The curtain of the Temple sanctuary was split in two from top to the bottom.
39 And when the centurion who stood in front of Jesus saw how he died, he said, “This man was certainly a son of God!”
40 There were some women there looking on from a distance, among them: Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of the younger James and Joses, and Salome.
41 These were the women who used to follow Jesus as he went about in Galilee and look after him. And there were many other women there who had come up to Jerusalem with them.
The body of Jesus is reverently laid in a tomb
42-47 When the evening came, because it was the day of preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath, Joseph from Arimathaea, a distinguished member of the council, who himself prepared to accept the kingdom of God, went boldly into Pilate’s presence and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised that he should be dead already and he sent for the centurion and asked whether he had been dead long. On hearing the centurion’s report, he gave Joseph the body of Jesus. So Joseph brought a linen winding-sheet, took Jesus down and wrapped him in it, and then put him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the solid rock, rolling a stone over the entrance to it. Mary of Magdala and Mary the mother of Joses were looking on and saw where he was laid.
Christian behaviour to one another
15 1-3 We who have strong faith ought to shoulder the burden of the doubts and qualms of others and not just to go our own sweet way. Our actions should mean the good of others—should help them to build up their characters. For even Christ did not choose his own pleasure, but as it is written: “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”
4 For all those words which were written long ago are meant to teach us today; that when we read in the scriptures of the endurance of men and of all the help that God gave them in those days, we may be encouraged to go on hoping in our own time.
5-7 May the God who inspires men to endure, and gives them a Father’s care, give you a mind united towards one another because of your common loyalty to Jesus Christ. And then, as one man, you will sing from the heart the praises of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So open your hearts to one another as Christ has opened his heart to you, and God will be glorified.
A reminder—Christ the universal saviour
8-9 Christ was made a servant of the Jews to prove God’s trustworthiness, since he personally implemented the promises made long ago to the fathers, and also that the Gentiles might bring glory to God for his mercy to them. It is written: ‘For this reason I will confess to you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name’.
10 And again: ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people!’
11 And yet again: ‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Laud him, all you peoples!’
12 And then Isaiah says: ‘There shall be a root of Jesse; and he who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope’.
13 May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in your faith, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your whole life and outlook may be radiant with hope.
What I have tried to do
14-16 For myself I feel certain that you, my brothers, have real Christian character and experience, and that you are capable of keeping each other on the right road. Nevertheless I have written to you with a certain frankness, to refresh your minds with truths that you already know, by virtue of my commission as Christ’s minister to the Gentiles in the service of the Gospel. For my constant endeavour is to present the Gentiles to God as an offering which he can accept, because they are sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
17-21 And I think I have something to be proud of (through Christ, of course) in my work for God. I am not competent to speak of the work Christ has done through others, but I do know that through me he has secured the obedience of Gentiles in word and deed, working by sign and miracle and all the power of the Spirit. I have fully preached the Gospel from Jerusalem and the surrounding country as far as Illyricum. My constant ambition has been to preach the Gospel where the name of Christ was previously unknown, and to avoid as far as possible building on another man’s foundations, so that: ‘To whom he was not announced, they shall see; and those who have not heard shall understand’.
My future plans
22 Perhaps this will explain why I have so frequently been prevented from coming to see you.
23-24 But now, since my work in these places no longer needs my presence, and since for many years I have had a great desire to see you, I hope to visit you on my way to Spain. I hope also that you will speed me in my journey, after I have had the satisfaction of seeing you all.
25-27 At the moment my next call is to Jerusalem, to look after the welfare of the Christians there. The churches in Macedonia and Achaia, you see, have thought it a good thing to make a contribution towards the poor Christians in Jerusalem. They have thought it a good thing to make this gesture and yet, really, they received “a good thing” from them first! For if the Gentiles have had a share in the Jews’ spiritual “good things” it is only fair that they should look after the Jews as far as the good things of this world are concerned.
28-29 When I have completed this task, then, and turned their gesture into a good deed done, I shall come to you en route for Spain. I feel sure that in this long-looked-for visit I shall bring with me the full blessing of Christ’s Gospel.
30-32 Now, my brothers, I am going to ask you, for the sake of Christ himself and for the love we bear each other in the Spirit, to stand behind me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf—that I may not fall into the hands of the unbelievers in Judea, and that the Jerusalem Christians may receive the gift I am taking to them in the spirit in which it was made. Then I shall come to you, in the purpose of God, with a happy heart, and may even enjoy with you a little holiday.
33 The God of peace be with you all, amen.
The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.