Mark 15

Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole council, came to a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

“Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate. “You have said so,” Jesus answered.

The chief priests accused him of all sorts of things.

So again Pilate asked him, “Aren't you going to answer? Look how many things they're accusing you of.”

But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people asked for.

A man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who'd committed murder in the uprising.

The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate,

knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him.

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

“What should I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.

“Crucify him,” they shouted.

“Why? What's he done wrong?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him.”

Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace — that is, the Praetorium — and called together the whole company of soldiers.

They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him.

And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews.”

Again and again they hit him on the head with a staff and spat on him. Falling on their knees, they made a show of paying him homage.

And when they'd finished mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

A man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.

They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means “the place of the skull”.

Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he didn't take it.

And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

It was nine in the morning when they crucified him.

The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.

They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left.

And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “He was counted among the lawless.”

Those who passed by hurled abuse at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So. You who were going to destroy the temple and build it in three days,

come down from the cross and save yourself.”

In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can't save himself.

Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, so we can see and believe.” And those crucified with him heaped insults on him too.

At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” — which means, “My God, my God, why have you left me?”

When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he's calling Elijah.”

Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff and offered it to him to drink. “Leave him alone now,” he said. “Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down.”

And Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last.

The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

And when the centurion standing there in front of Jesus saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God.”

Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome.

In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who'd come up with him to Jerusalem were there too.

It was Preparation Day — that is, the day before the Sabbath. So as evening came on,

Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Calling the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had died.

When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.

So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen and put it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance.

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.