Wednesday, November 27 - John 19:12-30

John 19:12-30
Then Pilate wanted to set Jesus free. But the crowd again yelled, "If you set this man free, you are no friend of the Emperor! Anyone who claims to be a king is an enemy of the Emperor."

13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out. Then he sat down on the judge?s bench at the place known as "The Stone Pavement." In Aramaic this pavement is called "Gabbatha." 14 It was about noon on the day before Passover, and Pilate said to the crowd, "Look at your king!"

15 "Kill him! Kill him!" they yelled. "Nail him to a cross!" "So you want me to nail your king to a cross?" Pilate asked. The chief priests replied, "The Emperor is our king!" 16 Then Pilate handed Jesus over to be nailed to a cross.

Jesus Is Nailed to a Cross
Jesus was taken away, 17 and he carried his cross to a place known as "The Skull." 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 that the Scriptures would come true, which say, "They divided up my clothes and gambled for my garments." 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. 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.