Jesus is Flogged and Mocked
Then Pilate took Jesus and ordered him to be whipped with a heavy leather whip. The soldiers gathered thorny branches and wove them into a crown, then pressed it down onto his head. They threw a purple robe around his shoulders and began their cruel game. One after another, they approached him, bowing in mock respect and calling out, "Greetings, King of the Jews!" Then they struck him hard across the face with their hands, only to step back and repeat their vicious mockery again and again.
Pilate Presents Jesus to the Crowd
Pilate came outside again and spoke to the Jewish leaders. "Look, I'm bringing him out to you so you can see that I find him guilty of nothing." Then Jesus came out, still wearing the crown made of thorns and the purple robe they had put on him. Pilate pointed to Jesus and said, "Here is the man!" The moment the chief priests and temple guards saw Jesus, they began shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Pilate shot back at them, "You take him and crucify him yourselves. I find nothing he's done wrong." The Jewish leaders answered, "We have our law, and according to that law he deserves to die because he claimed to be the Son of God."
Pilate's Final Interview with Jesus
When Pilate heard what the crowd was saying, he became even more frightened than before. He went back inside the governor's headquarters and asked Jesus, "Where do you come from?" But Jesus remained silent and gave him no answer. This frustrated Pilate, so he said to Jesus, "Why won't you speak to me? Don't you realize that I have the power to set you free, and I also have the power to have you crucified?" Jesus finally replied, "You would have no power over me at all unless it had been given to you from heaven above. Because of this, the person who betrayed me and handed me over to you has committed a greater sin than you have."
Pilate Delivers Jesus to be Crucified
After hearing this, Pilate kept trying to find a way to set Jesus free. But the Jewish leaders wouldn't stop shouting at him: "If you let this man go, you're betraying Caesar! Anyone who claims to be a king is rebelling against Caesar!" When Pilate heard these threatening words, he brought Jesus outside and took his place on the judge's seat. This happened at a place called the Stone Pavement—or Gabbatha in the Hebrew language. It was Friday, the day when people prepared for Passover, and it was about noon. Pilate looked at the crowd and said to the Jewish leaders, "Look, here is your king!" But they screamed back, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!" Pilate asked them, "Do you want me to crucify your king?" The chief priests shouted their answer: "We have no king except Caesar!" So finally Pilate gave in to their demands and handed Jesus over to be crucified. The soldiers took Jesus away.
The Crucifixion
Jesus carried his own cross as he walked out to a place called "The Skull," which in the Hebrew language was known as Golgotha. At this place, they nailed him to the cross. Two other men were also crucified at the same time, one on each side of Jesus, with Jesus hanging on the cross between them. Pilate had ordered a sign to be made and nailed above Jesus on the cross. The sign read: "JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS." Many Jewish people were able to read this sign because the place where Jesus was crucified was close to the city. The sign had been written in three different languages: Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. When the chief priests of the Jews saw what Pilate had written, they went to him with a complaint. "Don't write 'The King of the Jews,'" they said. "Instead, write that he claimed to be the King of the Jews." But Pilate refused to change what he had written. "What I have written, I have written," he told them.
The Division of Jesus' Garments
After the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, giving one part to each soldier. But his tunic was left over. This tunic was special—it had been woven as one continuous piece from top to bottom, with no seams anywhere. The soldiers looked at the seamless tunic and said to each other, "We shouldn't tear this apart. Let's throw dice instead and see who wins it." This happened exactly as the Scripture had said it would: "They divided my clothes among themselves and gambled for what I was wearing." And so the soldiers did exactly that.
Jesus Provides for His Mother
Standing close to Jesus's cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus looked down and saw his mother there, along with the disciple he especially loved, he spoke to his mother. "Dear woman," he said, "this man is now your son." Then he turned to the disciple and said, "She is now your mother." From that moment on, this disciple welcomed her into his own home and cared for her.
The Death of Jesus
After all this had happened, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed, and to make the Scripture come true, he said, "I am thirsty." There was a jar of sour wine nearby. So they dipped a sponge in the wine, put it on a branch of hyssop, and held it up to his mouth. When Jesus had tasted the sour wine, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
The Piercing of Jesus' Side
It was Friday, the day when people prepared for the Sabbath. The next day would be an especially important Sabbath, one of the highest holy days. The Jewish leaders did not want the bodies to hang on the crosses during this sacred time, so they went to Pilate with a request. They asked him to have the soldiers break the legs of the crucified men and take their bodies down. Breaking the legs would speed up death, since the victims could no longer push themselves up to breathe. The soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified alongside Jesus. Then they broke the legs of the other criminal. But when they came to Jesus, they could see that he was already dead, so they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers took his spear and pierced Jesus' side. Immediately, blood and water poured out from the wound. The person who saw this happen has given his testimony about it, and what he says is completely true. He knows he is telling the truth, and he tells you this so that you too might believe. These events took place to fulfill what the Scriptures had said long before: "Not one of his bones will be broken." And another passage of Scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."
The Burial of Jesus
After Jesus died, a man named Joseph from the town of Arimathea came forward. Joseph was secretly a follower of Jesus, but he had kept this hidden because he was afraid of what the Jewish leaders might do to him. He went to Pilate and asked for permission to take down Jesus' body from the cross. Pilate agreed and gave him permission, so Joseph went and carefully removed Jesus' body. Another man named Nicodemus also came to help. This was the same Nicodemus who had once visited Jesus during the night to talk with him. Nicodemus brought with him a large amount of burial spices—a mixture of myrrh and aloes that weighed about seventy-five pounds. Together, Joseph and Nicodemus took Jesus' body and wrapped it in strips of linen cloth, carefully placing the spices between the layers of cloth. This was exactly how Jewish people prepared bodies for burial according to their customs. Near the place where Jesus had been crucified, there was a garden. In this garden stood a new tomb that had been carved out of rock—a tomb where no one had ever been buried before. Since it was the day before the Jewish Sabbath, called the Preparation Day, and because this tomb was close by, Joseph and Nicodemus laid Jesus' body there.