Mark 15:1-21

Very early in the morning, the leading priests, the elders, the teachers of the law, and all the Jewish council decided what to do with Jesus. They tied him, led him away, and turned him over to Pilate, the governor. Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Those are your words.” The leading priests accused Jesus of many things. So Pilate asked Jesus another question, “You can see that they are accusing you of many things. Aren’t you going to answer?” But Jesus still said nothing, so Pilate was very surprised. Every year at the time of the Passover the governor would free one prisoner whom the people chose. At that time, there was a man named Barabbas in prison who was a rebel and had committed murder during a riot. The crowd came to Pilate and began to ask him to free a prisoner as he always did. So Pilate asked them, “Do you want me to free the king of the Jews?” Pilate knew that the leading priests had turned Jesus in to him because they were jealous. But the leading priests had persuaded the people to ask Pilate to free Barabbas, not Jesus. Then Pilate asked the crowd again, “So what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?” They shouted, “Crucify him!” Pilate asked, “Why? What wrong has he done?” But they shouted even louder, “Crucify him!” Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he freed Barabbas for them. After having Jesus beaten with whips, he handed Jesus over to the soldiers to be crucified. The soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s palace (called the Praetorium) and called all the other soldiers together. They put a purple robe on Jesus and used thorny branches to make a crown for his head. They began to call out to him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” The soldiers beat Jesus on the head many times with a stick. They spit on him and made fun of him by bowing on their knees and worshiping him. After they finished, the soldiers took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him out of the palace to be crucified. A man named Simon from Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was coming from the fields to the city. The soldiers forced Simon to carry the cross for Jesus.