Jesus Is Tried by Pilate
It was early in the morning when Jesus was taken from Caiaphas to the building where the Roman governor stayed. But the crowd waited outside. Any of them who had gone inside would have become unclean and would not be allowed to eat the Passover meal. 29 Pilate came out and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this man?" 30 They answered, "He is a criminal! That?s why we brought him to you."
31 Pilate told them, "Take him and judge him by your own laws." The crowd replied, "We are not allowed to put anyone to death." 32 And so what Jesus said about his death would soon come true. 33 Pilate then went back inside. He called Jesus over and asked, "Are you the king of the Jews?" 34 Jesus answered, "Are you asking this on your own or did someone tell you about me?"
35 "You know I?m not a Jew!" Pilate said. "Your own people and the chief priests brought you to me. What have you done?" 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom doesn?t belong to this world. If it did, my followers would have fought to keep me from being handed ov er to our leaders. No, my kingdom doesn?t belong to this world." 37 "So you are a king," Pilate replied.
"You are saying that I am a king," Jesus told him. "I was born into this world to tell about the truth. And everyone who belongs to the truth knows my voice." 38 Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?"
Jesus Is Sentenced to Death
Pilate went back out and said, "I don?t find this man guilty of anything! 39 And since I usually set a prisoner free for you at Passover, would you like for me to set free the king of the Jews?" 40 They shouted, "No, not him! We want Barabbas." Now Barabbas was a terrorist.
19 Pilate gave orders for Jesus to be beaten with a whip. 2 The soldiers made a crown out of thorn branches and put it on Jesus. Then they put a purple robe on him. 3 They came up to him and said, "Hey, you king of the Jews!" They also hit him with their fists. 4 Once again Pilate went out. This time he said, "I will have Jesus brought out to you again. Then you can see for yourselves that I have not found him guilty."
5 Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said, "Here is the man!" 6 When the chief priests and the temple police saw him, they yelled, "Nail him to a cross! Nail him to a cross!" Pilate told them, "You take him and nail him to a cross! I don?t find him guilty of anything." 7 The crowd replied, "He claimed to be the Son of God! Our Law says that he must be put to death." 8 When Pilate heard this, he was terrified. 9 He went back inside and asked Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus did not answer. 10 "Why won?t you answer my question?" Pilate asked. "Don?t you know that I have the power to let you go free or to nail you to a cross?" 11 Jesus replied, "If God had not given you the power, you couldn?t do anything at all to me. But the one who handed me over to you did something even worse."