Readings for Lent and Easter

15 Early in the morning the chief priests, elders and teachers of religion—the entire Supreme Court—met to discuss their next steps. Their decision was to send Jesus under armed guard to Pilate, the Roman governor.^[a]

² Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

“Yes,” Jesus replied, “it is as you say.”

^3-4 Then the chief priests accused him of many crimes, and Pilate asked him, “Why don’t you say something? What about all these charges against you?”

⁵ But Jesus said no more, much to Pilate’s amazement.

⁶ Now, it was Pilate’s custom to release one Jewish prisoner each year at Passover time—any prisoner the people requested. ⁷ One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, convicted along with others for murder during an insurrection.

⁸ Now a mob began to crowd in toward Pilate, asking him to release a prisoner as usual.

⁹ “How about giving you the ‘King of Jews’?” Pilate asked. “Is he the one you want released?” ¹⁰ (For he realized by now that this was a frameup, backed by the chief priests because they envied Jesus’ popularity.)

¹¹ But at this point the chief priests whipped up the mob to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus.

¹² “But if I release Barabbas,” Pilate asked them, “what shall I do with this man you call your king?”

¹³ They shouted back, “Crucify him!”

¹⁴ “But why?” Pilate demanded. “What has he done wrong?” They only roared the louder, “Crucify him!”