This man, Jesus, had been in the synagogues reading from the Jewish scripture, and talking about how to live life the way God would want you to live. The Sanhedrin didn�t like that he was taking there spotlight, but they especially hated him because he was talking to sinners, people who the they thought didn�t deserve to be talked to. Jesus thought, however, that it was necessary to talk to sinners, after all, you wouldn�t go to a doctor if you didn�t have anything wrong with you, so to if you are already holy and good, you don�t need to be taught how to be good.
Jesus had a following. These people were ordinary folks who listened to what he had to say, they were called disciples. He had twelve very close friends who he had with him almost all the time, they were his apostles. The gospels are said to be written by four of them. On a night in late winter, one of the apostles, Judas Iscariot, went to the Sanhedrin and told them that for forty silver coins he would give over his LORD and have him arrested by the roman guards. So they gave him the money and that night he went to a garden where Jesus and some of his disciples were located. Judas pointed out who Jesus was by going over and kissing him (a common form of greeting at the time). The soldiers quickly took Jesus and arrested him. The next day, Jesus was taken before the Sanhedrin and asked if he was �the son of God� but Jesus did not answer. They were furious. But, as they were not in charge of the law, they could not do much about it. So they took him to Pontius Pilot. The Sanhedrin told Pilot that Jesus claimed to be �king of the Jews and was therefore a traitor to the Emperor�. But this was a lie, Jesus never claimed to be anything. Pilot, not wanting to be responsible for Jewish affairs decided to have them send Jesus to Jewish leader to have him tried under Jewish law. So Jesus was sent to Herod, a leader of part of the country known as Galilee. Herod did not care much about any of this, he had Jesus taunted and mocked, but he found nothing wrong with him. Jesus was again sent to pilot. This time pilot had to make a decision. He saw that the crowd out side was getting uneasy. Pilot did not want to start a riot, so he asked the crowd what they wanted to do with this Jesus fellow. They shouted they wanted him crucified. Pilot could not find anything wrong with Jesus, so to try and appease the crowd he offered them a long forgotten tradition of letting out one prisoner a year. A assassin was brought out, his name was Barabbas. The crowd was influenced by the Sanhedrin and said that they would rather have Barabbas that Jesus. Pilot now obviously under pressure to act or risk a riot, decided to hand over Jesus and have him crucified. Jesus was taken be soldiers and beaten then made to carry a large wooden cross to outside the city on a hill where criminals were killed. The tiered Jesus couldn�t even make it all the way, and a guard pulled an onlooker to help. When Jesus finally got to the hill, he was placed arms stretched out on a cross and nailed to it. Then it was hoisted upright. He hung on the cross for hours, and died. All of this, was not the most important part of the story. It is this: Three days after Jesus had been buried, his mother and a friend of hers went to tend to Jesus, but when they got there, Jesus was gone. Soldiers had been standing guard, so it was obvious that no one stole the body, he had just disappeared. He was raised from the dead by God. He went through all that he did for us, you and me, so that we would never die. Now, when I say we will never die, I do not mean that we will live here forever, I mean that when we end this life our spirit will be will Jesus forever, and so we will never die. But the only way that one can be saved, is if he or she bevies that Jesus is lord. It is the only way!