Daily Gospel Plan

¹So then Pilate took Jesus and had Him scourged (flogged, whipped).

²And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe around Him;

³and they kept coming up to Him, saying [mockingly], "Hail, King of the Jews [Good health! Peace! Long life to you, King of the Jews]!" And they slapped Him in the face.

⁴Then Pilate came out again and said to them, "Look, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him [no crime, no cause for an accusation]."

⁵So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said to them, "Look! The Man!"

⁶When the chief priests and officers saw Him, they shouted, "Crucify [Him]! Crucify [Him]!" Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him [no crime, no cause for an accusation]."

⁷The Jews answered him, "We have a law [regarding blasphemy], and according to that law He should die, because He made Himself out to be the Son of God."

⁸So when Pilate heard this said, he was [even] more alarmed and afraid.

⁹He went into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?" But Jesus did not answer him.

¹⁰So Pilate said to Him, "You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?"

¹¹Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over Me at all if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the sin and guilt of the one who handed Me over to you is greater [than your own]."

¹²As a result of this, Pilate kept making efforts to release Him, but the Jews kept screaming, " If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar! Anyone who makes himself out [to be] a king opposes Caesar [and rebels against the emperor]!"

¹³When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

¹⁴Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover [week], and it was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, "Look, your King!"

¹⁵But they shouted, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!"

¹⁶Then he handed Him over to them to be crucified.

¹⁷So they took Jesus, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of the Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.

¹⁸There they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.

¹⁹Pilate also wrote an inscription [on a placard] and put it on the cross. And it was written: "JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS."

²⁰And many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.

²¹Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews'; but, 'He said, "I am King of the Jews."'"

²²Pilate replied, "What I have written I have written [and it remains written]."

²³Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer clothes and made four parts, a part for each soldier, and also the tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven [in one piece] from the top throughout.

²⁴So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it will be." This was to fulfill the Scripture, "They divided My outer clothing among them, and for My clothing they cast lots."

²⁵So the soldiers did these things. But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, His mother's sister [ Salome], Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

²⁶So Jesus, seeing His mother, and the disciple whom He loved (esteemed) standing near, said to His mother, "[Dear] woman, look, [here is] your son!"

²⁷Then He said to the disciple (John), "Look! [here is] your mother [protect and provide for her]!" From that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

²⁸After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said in fulfillment of the Scripture, "I am thirsty."

²⁹A jar full of sour wine was placed there; so they put a sponge soaked in the sour wine on [a branch of] hyssop and held it to His mouth.

³⁰When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and [voluntarily] gave up His spirit.

³¹Since it was the day of Preparation [for the Sabbath], in order to prevent the bodies from hanging on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high holy day) the Jews asked Pilate to have their legs broken [to hasten death] and the bodies taken away.

³²So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other who had been crucified with Him.

³³But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.

³⁴But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came [flowing] out.

³⁵And he (John, the eyewitness) who has seen it has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also [who read this] may believe.

³⁶For these things took place to fulfill the Scripture, "Not a bone of His shall be broken."

³⁷And again another Scripture says, "They shall look at Him whom they have pierced."

³⁸And after this, Joseph of Arimathea—a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews—asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away His body.

³⁹Nicodemus, who had first come to Him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, [weighing] about a hundred [Roman] pounds.

⁴⁰So they took Jesus' body and bound it in linen wrappings with the fragrant spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.

⁴¹Now there was a garden at the place where He was crucified, and in the garden a new tomb [cut out of solid rock] in which no one had yet been laid.

⁴²Therefore, because of the Jewish day of Preparation, and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

¹Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw the stone [already] removed from the [groove across the entrance of the] tomb.

²So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple (John), whom Jesus loved (esteemed), and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him!"

³So Peter and the other disciple left, and they were going to the tomb.

⁴And the two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and arrived at the tomb first.

⁵Stooping down and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings [neatly] lying there; but he did not go in.

⁶Then Simon Peter came up, following him, and went into the tomb and saw the linen wrappings [neatly] lying there;

⁷and the [burial] face-cloth which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the [other] linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself.

⁸So the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, went in too; and he saw [the wrappings and the face-cloth] and believed [without any doubt that Jesus had risen from the dead].

⁹For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead.

¹⁰Then the disciples went back again to their own homes.

¹¹But Mary [who had returned] was standing outside the tomb sobbing; and so, as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb;

¹²and she saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

¹³And they said to her, "Woman, why are you crying?" She told them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him."

¹⁴After saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

¹⁵Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you crying? For whom are you looking?" Supposing that He was the gardener, she replied, "Sir, if you are the one who has carried Him away from here, tell me where you have put Him, and I will take Him away."

¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means, Teacher).

¹⁷Jesus said to her, " Do not hold Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.'"

¹⁸Mary Magdalene came, reporting to the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had said these things to her.

¹⁹So when it was evening on that same day, the first day of the week, though the disciples were [meeting] behind barred doors for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them, and said, " Peace to you."

²⁰After He said this, He showed them His hands and His side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with great joy.

²¹Then Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you [as My representatives]."

²²And when He said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.

²³If you forgive the sins of anyone they are forgiven [because of their faith]; if you retain the sins of anyone, they are retained [and remain unforgiven because of their unbelief]."

²⁴But Thomas, one of the twelve [disciples], who was called Didymus (the twin), was not with them when Jesus came.

²⁵So the other disciples kept telling him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the marks of the nails, and put my finger into the nail prints, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe."

²⁶Eight days later His disciples were again inside the house, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, though the doors had been barred, and stood among them and said, "Peace to you."

²⁷Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and put out your hand and place it in My side. Do not be unbelieving, but [stop doubting and] believe."

²⁸Thomas answered Him, "My Lord and my God!"

²⁹Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, do you now believe? Blessed [happy, spiritually secure, and favored by God] are they who did not see [Me] and yet believed [in Me]."

³⁰There are also many other signs (attesting miracles) that Jesus performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;

³¹but these have been written so that you may believe [with a deep, abiding trust] that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the Son of God; and that by believing [and trusting in and relying on Him] you may have life in His name.