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 Times
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An Easter Story
John 19
Jesus Sentenced to be Crucified
1Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2The soldiers
twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a
purple robe 3and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king
of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face.
4Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing
him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him."
5When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe,
Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"
6As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they
shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"
But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis
for a charge against him."
7The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must
die, because he claimed to be the Son of God."
8When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9and he
went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus
gave him no answer. 10"Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said.
"Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?"
11Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not
given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty
of a greater sin."
12From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept
shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who
claims to be a king opposes Caesar."
13When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the
judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is
Gabbatha). 14It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about
the sixth hour.
"Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews.
15But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!"
"Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked.
"We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered.
16Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
The Crucifixion
17So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he
went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).
18Here they crucified him, and with him two others--one on each side and
Jesus in the middle.
19Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read:|sc
JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20Many of the Jews read this
sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign
was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21The chief priests of the
Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this
man claimed to be king of the Jews."
22Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
23When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing
them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining.
This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24"Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot
who will get it."
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said,
"They divided my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing."[1]
So this is what the soldiers did.
25Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary
the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother
there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother,
"Dear woman, here is your son," 27and to the disciple, "Here is your
mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
The Death of Jesus
28Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the
Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." 29A jar of
wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk
of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. 30When he had
received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head
and gave up his spirit.
31Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a
special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses
during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies
taken down. 32The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the
first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other.
33But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did
not break his legs. 34Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus'
side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35The
man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he
tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36These
things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones
will be broken,"[2] 37and,
as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."[3]
The Burial of Jesus
38Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now
Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With
Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. 39He was
accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.
Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.[4]
40Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in
strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41At
the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new
tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42Because it was the Jewish
day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
John 20
The Empty Tomb
1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary
Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the
entrance. 2So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple,
the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we
don't know where they have put him!"
3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both
were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but
did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and
went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well
as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by
itself, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had
reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They
still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
10Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11but Mary
stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb
12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one
at the head and the other at the foot.
13They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"
14"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where
they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but
she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking
for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell
me where you have put him, and I will get him."
16Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means
Teacher).
17Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to
the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my
Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "
18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen
the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples
were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood
among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 20After he said this, he
showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the
Lord.
21Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I
am sending you." 22And with that he breathed on them and said,
"Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are
forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the
disciples when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, "We
have seen the Lord!"
But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger
where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
26A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was
with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and
said, "Peace be with you!" 27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger
here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting
and believe."
28Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
29Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed;
blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
30Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his
disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But these are
written that you may[1] believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have
life in his name.
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