Again Pilate came out and said to the Jewish leaders, "Look! I am bringing Jesus out to you. I want you to know that I find nothing I can charge him with."
When the leading priests and the Jewish guards saw Jesus they shouted, "Kill him on a cross! Kill him on a cross!" But Pilate answered, "You take him and nail him to a cross yourselves. I find nothing I can charge him with."
After this, Pilate tried to let Jesus go free. But the Jewish leaders shouted, "Anyone who makes himself a king is against Caesar. So if you let this man go free, that means you are not Caesar's friend."
When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out to the place called "The Stone Pavement." (In Aramaic the name is "Gabbatha.") Pilate sat down on the judge's seat there.
They shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Kill him on a cross!" Pilate asked them, "Do you want me to kill your king on a cross?" The leading priests answered, "The only king we have is Caesar!"
The sign was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was nailed to the cross was near the city.
After the soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts. Each soldier got one part. They also took his tunic. It was all one piece of cloth woven from top to bottom.
So the soldiers said to each other, "We should not tear this into parts. Let's throw lots to see who will get it." This happened to make clear the full meaning of what the Scriptures say, "They divided my clothes among them, and they threw lots for what I was wearing." So the soldiers did this.
There was a jar full of sour wine there, so the soldiers soaked a sponge in it. They put the sponge on a branch of a hyssop plant and lifted it to Jesus' mouth.
This day was Preparation day. The next day was a special Sabbath day. The Jewish leaders did not want the bodies to stay on the cross on the Sabbath day. So they asked Pilate to order that the legs of the men be broken. And they asked that the bodies be taken down from the crosses.
(The one who saw this happen has told about it. He told about it so that you also can believe. The things he says are true. He knows that he tells the truth.)
Later, a man named Joseph from Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. (Joseph was a follower of Jesus, but he did not tell anyone, because he was afraid of the Jewish leaders.) Pilate said Joseph could take Jesus' body, so he came and took it away.
Nicodemus went with Joseph. He was the man who had come to Jesus before and talked to him at night. He brought about 100 pounds of spices—a mixture of myrrh and aloes.