Mark 15

Before Pilate

Very early in the morning the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of religious law—the entire high council—met to discuss their next step. They bound Jesus, led him away, and took him to Pilate, the Roman governor. ²Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “You have said it.” ³Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, ⁴and Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you?” ⁵But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate’s surprise.

The crowd chooses Barabbas

⁶Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner—anyone the people requested. ⁷One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising. ⁸The crowd went to Pilate and asked him to release a prisoner as usual.

⁹“Would you like me to release to you this ‘King of the Jews’?” Pilate asked. ¹⁰(For he realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy.) ¹¹But at this point the leading priests stirred up the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus.

Pilate hands Jesus over

¹²Pilate asked them, “Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?” ¹³They shouted back, “Crucify him!” ¹⁴“Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?” But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!” ¹⁵So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

The soldiers mock Jesus

¹⁶The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment. ¹⁷They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. ¹⁸Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” ¹⁹And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship.

²⁰When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.

The crucifixion

²¹A passerby named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. (Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.) ²²And they brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”). ²³They offered him wine drugged with myrrh, but he refused it.

²⁴Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. They divided his clothes and threw dice to decide who would get each piece. ²⁵It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. ²⁶A sign announced the charge against him. It read, “The King of the Jews.” ²⁷Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.

²⁸The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Ha! Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. ²⁹Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross!” ³⁰The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself!

³¹Let this Messiah, this King of Israel, come down from the cross so we can see it and believe him!” Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him. ³²At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock.

The death of Jesus

³³Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”a ³⁴Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah.b ³⁵One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. “Wait!” he said. “Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him down!” ³⁶Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last.

³⁷And the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. ³⁸When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, “This man truly was the Son of God!”c ³⁹Some women were there, watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James the younger and of Joseph), and Salome.

⁴⁰They had been followers of Jesus and had cared for him while he was in Galilee. Many other women who had come with him to Jerusalem were also there. ⁴¹This all happened on Friday, the day of preparation, the day before the Sabbath. As evening approached,

The burial of Jesus

⁴²Joseph of Arimathea took a risk and went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. (Joseph was an honored member of the high council, and he was waiting for the Kingdom of God to come.) ⁴³Pilate couldn’t believe that Jesus was already dead, so he called for the Roman officer and asked if he had died yet. ⁴⁴The officer confirmed that Jesus was dead, so Pilate told Joseph he could have the body.

⁴⁵Joseph bought a long sheet of linen cloth. Then he took Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrapped it in the cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone in front of the entrance. ⁴⁶Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where Jesus’ body was laid.