Mark 15

1As soon as it was morning, the chief priests met with the elders, the scribes and the whole Council and reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him off, and handed him over to Pilate. 2Pilate questioned him, “So you are the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “You have said so.” 3The chief priests kept bringing many charges against him. 4So Pilate put another question to him: “Have you no answer at all? Look at all the charges they are bringing against you.” 5But Jesus made no further reply at all, and Pilate was astonished.

6At the festival it was his custom to set free for them one prisoner of their choosing. 7A man named Barabbas was in prison along with the rebels who had killed people in the uprising. 8The crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do for them what he always did. 9Pilate replied, “Shall I set free the King of the Jews for you? Is that what you want?” 10Pilate could see that envy was what had moved the chief priests to hand him over to him. 11But the chief priests worked up the crowd to have him free Barabbas for them instead. 12Pilate spoke to them again. “Then what would you have me do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” 13They shouted back, “Crucify him!” 14Pilate asked them, “Why? What crime has he committed?” But they only shouted louder, “Crucify him!” 15So Pilate, wishing to please the crowd, freed Barabbas for them. He had Jesus flogged and then handed him over for crucifixion.

16The soldiers took him into the palace courtyard, that is, the governor’s headquarters, and called the whole company of soldiers together. 17They put a purple robe on him, wove a crown out of thorny branches and put it on his head. 18Then they started saluting him: “Long live the King of the Jews!” 19Again and again they hit him on the head with a stick, spat on him, and went down on their knees to pay him homage. 20When they had finished mocking him, they stripped the purple robe off him and dressed him in his own clothes. Then they took him out to crucify him.

21A man named Simon from Cyrene was coming in from the countryside and passing by; he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. The soldiers pressed him into carrying the cross for Jesus. 22They brought Jesus to a place named Golgotha, meaning Place of a Skull. 23They tried to give him wine flavored with myrrh, but he would not take it. 24Then they crucified him. They shared out his clothes by throwing dice for them to see what each would get.

25It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 26The written charge against him said, “The King of the Jews.” 27They also crucified two bandits with him, one at his right and one at his left.

29People who went by hurled insults at him, wagging their heads. “Ha!” they said. “So you were going to tear down the temple and raise it again in three days! 30Then save yourself by coming down from the cross!” 31The chief priests and the scribes mocked him in the same way among themselves. “He saved other people,” they said, “but he cannot save himself! 32Let Christ, the King of Israel, come down from the cross right now, so that we can see it and believe!” Even the men crucified with him heaped insults on him.

33At noon darkness fell over the whole land and lasted until three in the afternoon. 34At three o’clock Jesus gave a loud shout: “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” That means, “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” 35Some of the bystanders heard it and said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah!” 36Someone ran and soaked a sponge in sour wine, put it on the end of a stick and offered it to him to drink. “Wait!” he said. “Let us see if Elijah will come and take him down.” 37But Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. 38And the curtain in the sanctuary was split in two from top to bottom. 39The centurion standing in front of him saw how he died, and he said, “This man really was God’s Son!”

40Women were also there, looking on from far off, among them Mary Magdalene; Mary, mother of the younger James and of Joses; and Salome. 41In Galilee they had followed him and looked after his needs. Many other women were there as well, who had come with him up to Jerusalem.

42Evening was already coming on. Since it was the day of Preparation, the day before the Sabbath, 43Joseph from Arimathea came. He was a respected member of the Council who was also looking for the kingdom of God. He boldly went in to Pilate and requested the body of Jesus. 44Pilate was surprised that he could already be dead. He called the centurion and asked him whether he had been dead for some time. 45When the centurion told him, he gave the body to Joseph. 46Joseph bought a linen cloth, took him down and wrapped him in it. He laid him in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock, and he rolled a stone over the entrance of the tomb. 47Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were watching to see where he was placed.