| The Crucifixion |
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| After Barabbas was released, Pilate had him scourged; then he handed him over to be crucified. Pilate's soldiers took Jesus inside the praetorium and they all gathered around him. They stripped off his clothes and wrapped him in a red military cloak. Weaving a crown out of thorns they fixed it on his head, and stuck a reed in his right hand. Then they began to mock him by dropping to their knees before him saying, "All hail, king of the Jews!" Afterward they took hold of the reed and struck him with it on the head. Finally, when they had finished making a fool of him, the stripped him of the cloak and dressed him in his own clothes, and led him to the crucifixion. They made him carry the cross, but on the way they met a Cyrenian named Simon and pressed him into the service of carrying the cross for him. Upon arriving at Golgotha, they gave him a drink of wine flavored with gall, which he tasted but refused to drink. When they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among them casting lots; then they sat down there and kept watch over him. Above his head they put a sign saying "THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS." Two criminals were crucified with him, one at his right and one at his left. People going by kept insulting him, laughing at him saying, "So you are the one who was going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days! Save yourself, why don't you? Come down off that cross if you are God's Son!" Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders joined in, "He saved others but he cannot save himself! So he is the king of Israel! Let's see him come down from that cross, and then we will believe him. He relied on God; let God rescue him now if he wants to. After all, he claimed, 'I am God's Son.' " Those gathered around continued to taunt him. From noon onward, there was darkness over the whole land until midafternoon. Then toward midafternoon Jesus cried out, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?*" This made some of the bystanders remark, "He is invoking Elijah!" Immediately one of them ran off and got a sponge. He soaked it in cheap wine, sticking it on a reed, tried to make him drink. Meanwhile the rest said, "Leave him alone. Let's see whether Elijah comes to his rescue." |
| *My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? |
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