Jesus Is Nailed to a Cross

Jesus was taken away, ¹⁷ and he carried his cross to a place known as “The Skull.”^[b] In Aramaic this place is called “Golgotha.” ¹⁸ There Jesus was nailed to the cross, and on each side of him a man was also nailed to a cross.

¹⁹ Pilate ordered the charge against Jesus to be written on a board and put above the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” ²⁰ The words were written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

The place where Jesus was taken wasn’t far from the city, and many of the people read the charge against him. ²¹ So the chief priests went to Pilate and said, “Why did you write that he is King of the Jews? You should have written, ‘He claimed to be King of the Jews.’ ”

²² But Pilate told them, “What is written will not be changed!”

²³ After the soldiers had nailed Jesus to the cross, they divided up his clothes into four parts, one for each of them. But his outer garment was made from a single piece of cloth, and it did not have any seams. ²⁴  The soldiers said to each other, “Let’s not rip it apart. We will gamble to see who gets it.” This happened so the Scriptures would come true, which say,

The soldiers then did what they had decided.

²⁵ Jesus’ mother stood beside his cross with her sister and Mary the wife of Clopas. Mary Magdalene was standing there too.^[c] 26 When Jesus saw his mother and his favorite disciple with her, he said to his mother, “This man is now your son.” ²⁷ Then he said to the disciple, “She is now your mother.” From then on, that disciple took her into his own home.

The Death of Jesus

²⁸  Jesus knew that he had now finished his work. And in order to make the Scriptures come true, he said, “I am thirsty!” ²⁹ A jar of cheap wine was there. Someone then soaked a sponge with the wine and held it up to Jesus’ mouth on the stem of a hyssop plant. ³⁰ After Jesus drank the wine, he said, “Everything is done!” He bowed his head and died.

A Spear Is Stuck in Jesus’ Side

³¹ The next day would be both a Sabbath and the Passover. It was a special day for the Jewish people,^[d] and they did not want the bodies to stay on the crosses during this day. So they asked Pilate to break the men’s legs^[e] and take their bodies down. ³² The soldiers first broke the legs of the other two men who were nailed there. ³³ But when they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, and they did not break his legs.

³⁴ One of the soldiers stuck his spear into Jesus’ side, and blood and water came out. ³⁵ We know this is true, because it was told by someone who saw it happen. Now you can have faith too. ³⁶  All this happened so that the Scriptures would come true, which say, “No bone of his body will be broken” ³⁷  and “They will see the one in whose side they stuck a spear.”

Jesus Is Buried

³⁸ Joseph from Arimathea was one of Jesus’ disciples. He had kept it secret though, because he was afraid of the Jewish leaders. But now he asked Pilate to let him have Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission, and Joseph took it down from the cross.

³⁹  Nicodemus also came with about 30 kilograms of spices made from myrrh and aloes. This was the same Nicodemus who had visited Jesus one night.^[f] 40 The two men wrapped the body in a linen cloth, together with the spices, which was how the Jewish people buried their dead. ⁴¹ In the place where Jesus had been nailed to a cross, there was a garden with a tomb that had never been used. ⁴² The tomb was nearby, and since it was the time to prepare for the Sabbath, they were in a hurry to put Jesus’ body there.

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