Readings for Lent and Easter

Jesus before Pilate

15 As soon as morning came, the chief priests held a council meeting with the elders, the legal experts, and the whole Sanhedrin. They bound Jesus, took him off to Pilate, and handed him over.

² “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

“You have said it,” replied Jesus.

³ The chief priests laid many accusations against him.

⁴ Pilate again interrogated him: “Aren’t you going to make any reply? Look how many accusations they’re making against you!”

⁵ But Jesus gave no reply at all, which astonished Pilate.

⁶ The custom was that at festival time he used to release for them a single prisoner, whoever they would ask for. ⁷ There was a man in prison named Barabbas, one of the revolutionaries who had committed murder during the uprising. ⁸ So the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do what he normally did.

⁹ “Do you want me,” answered Pilate, “to release for you ‘the king of the Jews’?”

¹⁰ He said this because he knew that the chief priests had handed him over out of envy. ¹¹ The chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask for Barabbas instead to be released to them. So Pilate once again asked them, ¹² “What then do you want me to do with the one you call ‘the king of the Jews’?”

¹³ “Crucify him!” they shouted again.

¹⁴ “Why?” asked Pilate. “What has he done wrong?”

“Crucify him!” they shouted all the louder.