Matthew 27

1Early in the morning all the chief priests and the elders of the people met and reached their decision against Jesus: he must be put to death. 2They tied him up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.

3When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus had been condemned, he was seized with regret and took the thirty silver coins back to the chief priests and the elders. 4“I have sinned,” he said. “I have handed an innocent man over to death.” They answered, “Why should that concern us? That is your affair.” 5Judas flung the silver into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. 6The chief priests gathered up the coins. “The law does not let us put this into the temple treasury,” they said, “because it was paid to bring about a death.” 7They talked it over and decided to buy the Potter’s Field with the money, as a place to bury people from other lands. 8This is why that field has had the name Field of Blood ever since, up to the present day. 9Then the word spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “They took the thirty silver coins, the price set on the one whose value some of the people of Israel had fixed, 10and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord had instructed me.”

11Jesus now stood in front of the governor, who questioned him: “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “It is you who say it.” 12But when the chief priests and the elders brought their charges against him, he made no reply. 13Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear all the charges they are bringing against you?” 14Still Jesus did not answer him on even one point, and the governor was deeply amazed at this.

15At each festival the governor used to set free one prisoner for the crowd, whichever one they wanted. 16At that time they were holding a prisoner everyone knew of, called Jesus Barabbas. 17When the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to set free for you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 18He was aware that envy had moved them to hand Jesus over.

19As Pilate sat on the judgment seat, a message came to him from his wife: “Leave that righteous man alone. Today in a dream I went through great distress over him.”

20But the chief priests and the elders talked the crowds into asking for Barabbas and having Jesus put to death. 21The governor asked them again, “Which of these two do you want me to set free for you?” “Barabbas!” they said. 22Pilate asked them, “Then what am I to do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all shouted, “Let him be crucified!” 23“But what wrong has he done?” Pilate asked. But they only shouted louder and louder, “Let him be crucified!” 24Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere and that an uproar was starting instead. So he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am not guilty of this man’s death,” he said. “That is your affair.” 25All the people there answered, “Let the guilt for his death fall on us and on our children!” 26So Pilate let Barabbas go free, as they wanted. As for Jesus, Pilate ordered him to be scourged, and then handed him over for crucifixion.

27The governor’s soldiers then brought Jesus inside the governor’s headquarters, and the entire cohort assembled around him. 28They took off his clothes and put a scarlet military cloak on him. 29They twisted thorny branches into a crown and set it on his head, and put a stick in his right hand. Then they went down on their knees in front of him and made fun of him: “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30They spat on him, and took the stick and beat him over the head with it again and again. 31After they had finished mocking him, they stripped off the cloak and dressed him again in his own clothes. Then they led him out to be crucified.

32On their way out they came across a man from Cyrene named Simon, and they forced him to carry Jesus’s cross.

33They arrived at a place named Golgotha, a name meaning Place of a Skull. 34They gave him wine to drink that had gall mixed into it. He tasted it but would not drink it. 35When they had crucified him, they shared out his clothes among themselves by drawing lots. 36Then they sat down there and kept guard over him. 37Over his head they placed the charge against him in writing: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

38Two bandits were crucified along with him, one at his right and the other at his left. 39People going past heaped insults on him and shook their heads. 40“So you were going to tear down the temple and build it again in three days!” they said. “Save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” 41In the same way the chief priests made fun of him, along with the scribes and the elders. They said, 42“He saved others, yet he has no power to save himself. The King of Israel, is he? Then let him come down off the cross this moment, and we will believe in him. 43He put his trust in God, so let God rescue him now, if God really wants him. For he said, ‘I am God’s Son.’” 44Even the bandits crucified alongside him heaped the same insults on him.

45At noon darkness fell over the whole land, and it lasted until three in the afternoon. 46At about three o’clock Jesus gave a loud cry: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” That means, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” 47Hearing it, some of those who stood nearby said, “This fellow is calling for Elijah!” 48At once one of them ran and got a sponge. He soaked it in sour wine, put it on the end of a stick, and held it up for him to drink. 49But the rest told him, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50Once more Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and he yielded up his spirit. 51Then the temple curtain split in two, from the top all the way to the bottom. The ground shook and rocks were torn apart. 52Graves were opened, and the bodies of many of God’s holy people who had fallen asleep in death were raised. 53Coming out of the graves after Jesus was raised, they went into the holy city and showed themselves to many people.

54The centurion and the men with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and everything that was happening, and they were filled with fear. “This man truly was God’s Son!” they said.

55A number of women stood watching from far off. These women had come with Jesus all the way from Galilee, providing for him. 56Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

57As evening came on, Joseph arrived, a rich man from the town of Arimathea who had also become one of Jesus’s disciples. 58He went to Pilate and requested Jesus’s body. Pilate then ordered that it be handed over to him. 59Joseph took the body and wound a clean linen sheet around it. 60Then he placed it in the new tomb he had carved in the rock for himself, rolled a great stone across the doorway of the tomb, and went away. 61Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary too, seated facing the tomb.

62On the following day, the one after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees came together to Pilate. 63“Sir,” they said, “we have remembered something that impostor said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will be raised.’ 64Give the command, then, to have the tomb guarded securely until the third day. If not, his disciples could come, take him away by stealth, and announce to the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead.’ And this final fraud would do more harm than the first one.” 65Pilate told them, “You may have a guard. Go and secure it in whatever way you think best.” 66They went and sealed the stone, and with the guard in place they made the tomb secure.