23:1 So the whole crowd got up and took him to Pilate,

23:2 where they began to accuse him: “We found this person subverting our nation and agitating against paying taxes to Caesar, and he says he is an anointed king.”

23:3 So Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Judeans?”“Yes,” replied Jesus, “you’ve said it yourself.”

23:4 Then Pilate said to the ruling priests and the crowd, “I find nothing incriminating against this person.”

23:5 But they were insistent: “He agitates the people with his teachings all over Judea, from here to Galilee!”

23:6 When Pilate heard this, he wanted to find out if this person were a Galilean.

23:7 And once he found out that he was under the jurisdiction of Herod, he sent him to him, since he was in Jerusalem at the time.

23:8 Now when Herod found out about this he was very pleased, because for a long time he had wanted to meet him, since he had heard so much about him. He especially wanted to see Jesus perform a miracle.

23:9 But though he asked him many questions, Jesus did not respond.

23:10 Then the ruling priests and scripture scholars who were standing there began to accuse him vigorously.

23:11 Even Herod and his troops joined in the jeering, and then they dressed him up in fancy clothes and sent him back to Pilate.

23:12 (On that very day, Herod and Pilate became friends, though before this they were bitter enemies.)

23:13 Pilate then called together the ruling priests and rulers of the people,

23:14 and he said to them, “You brought this person to me under the charge of subversion, but let it be known that I examined him in your presence and found no basis for the charge.

23:15 In fact, neither did Herod, seeing that he sent him back to me. So my finding is that he has done nothing worthy of the death penalty.

23:16 I will have him punished and then released.”

23:17

23:18 Yet as one they all kept saying, “Away with this one! Release Bar-Abbas to us instead!”

23:19 (Bar-Abbas was in jail for rioting and murder.)

23:20 So Pilate informed them again that he wanted to release Jesus,

23:21 but they shouted back, “Crucify! Crucify him!”

23:22 Then for the third time Pilate said to them, “What crime has he committed? I have found no reason to charge him with a capital offense! I will punish him and then release him.”

23:23 But they only shouted all the louder for him to be crucified, and they finally wore Pilate down.

23:24 So he granted their demand;

23:25 he released the one they asked for who had been in jail for rioting and murder, but handed Jesus over to them to do as they wished.

23:26 And as they led him away, they seized Simon the Cyrenian who was coming in from the fields, forcing him to carry the cross behind Jesus.

23:27 There was a large crowd of people following Jesus, including women who grieved and mourned for him.

23:28 But Jesus turned around to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me but for yourselves and your children.

23:29 For the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the infertile, the wombs that have never given birth, the breasts that have never nursed!’

23:30 Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’, and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’

23:31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will they do when it dries up?”

23:32 Now two criminals were also taken away with him.

23:33 And when they reached the place called The Skull they crucified him, putting one criminal to his left and the other to his right.

23:34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t realize what they’re doing.” And they divided up his clothes and gambled for them.

23:35 The people stood and watched, and they as well as the rulers mocked him viciously: “He saved others, so let him save himself, if he is the Anointed of God, the Chosen One!”

23:36 The soldiers jeered too, offering him their cheap wine

23:37 and saying, “If you are the king of the Judeans, save yourself!”

23:38 (There was an inscription above him with the words, “This is the King of the Judeans.”)

23:39 Even one of the criminals hanging there slandered him and said, “Aren’t you the Anointed? Save yourself and us too!”

23:40 But the other one rebuked him and said, “Even now, do you not fear God, since you are under the same judgment?

23:41 We are only getting what we deserved for our deeds, but this one has done nothing wrong.”

23:42 And he said to Jesus, “Remember me when you acquire your kingdom!”

23:43 “I tell you truly,” Jesus replied, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

23:44 Now it was already around noon, and darkness covered the whole earth until three in the afternoon,

23:45 because the sun had gone dark. Then the curtain in the temple was ripped down the center,

23:46 and Jesus shouted out loudly, “Father, into your hands I present my spirit!” And with that, he breathed his last.

23:47 Now when the Roman army captain saw all this, he gave honor to God and said, “This person had to have been righteous!”

23:48 And the crowd that had gathered to watch saw this too, and they turned away in shame.

23:49 But his close friends, including the women who followed him from Galilee, all stood at a distance observing all this.

23:50 Then came a man named Joseph, a member of the Council with a reputation as a fair civic benefactor,

23:51 who had not consented to the Council’s motives and deeds. He was from Arimathea, a city in Judea, and he had been anticipating the kingdom of God.

23:52 He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.

23:53 He took it down and wrapped it in linen, then placed it a new tomb carved out of rock.

23:54 It was Preparation Day and the Sabbath was about to start.

23:55 The women who had come together from Galilee with Jesus had been following along, and they noted the tomb and how his body was placed in it.

23:56 Then they returned and prepared aromatic spices and perfumed oils.