14. It was about noon on Preparation Day in Passover Week. "Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews.
15. But they shouted, "Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!" "Should I crucify your king?" Pilate asked. "We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered.
16. Finally, Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be nailed to a cross. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.
17. He had to carry his own cross. He went out to a place called The Skull. In the Aramaic language it was called Golgotha.
18. There they nailed Jesus to the cross. Two other men were crucified with him. One was on each side of him. Jesus was in the middle.
19. Pilate had a notice prepared. It was fastened to the cross. It read, ~jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews.=
20. Many of the Jews read the sign. The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. The sign was written in the Aramaic, Latin and Greek languages.
21. The chief priests of the Jews argued with Pilate. They said, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews.' Write that this man claimed to be king of the Jews."
22. Pilate answered, "I have written what I have written."
23. When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes. They divided them into four parts. Each soldier got one part. Jesus' long, inner robe was left. It did not have any seams. It was made out of one piece of cloth from top to bottom.
24. "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's cast lots to see who will get it." This happened so that Scripture would come true. It says, "They divided up my clothes among them. They cast lots for what I was wearing." (Psalm 22:18) So that is what the soldiers did.
25. Jesus' mother stood near his cross. So did his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26. Jesus saw his mother there. He also saw the disciple he loved standing nearby. Jesus said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son."
27. He said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, the disciple took her into his home.
28. Later Jesus said, "I am thirsty." He knew that everything was now finished. He knew that what Scripture said must come true.
29. A jar of wine vinegar was there. So they soaked a sponge in it. They put the sponge on a stem of the hyssop plant. Then they lifted it up to Jesus' lips.
30. After Jesus drank he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and died.
31. It was Preparation Day. The next day would be a special Sabbath. The Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath. So they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.
32. The soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus. Then they broke the legs of the other man.