The Daily Audio Bible

³² As they were going out they found a man from Cyrene, called Simon. They forced him to carry his cross.

³³ When they came to the place called Golgotha, which means Skull Place, ³⁴ they gave him a drink of wine mixed with bitter herbs. When he tasted it, he refused to drink it.

³⁵ So then they crucified him. They divided up his clothes by casting lots, ³⁶ and they sat down and kept watch over him there. ³⁷ And they placed the written charge above his head: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

³⁸ Then they crucified two brigands alongside him, one on his right and one on his left.

Jesus mocked on the cross

³⁹ The people who were going by shouted blasphemies at Jesus. They shook their heads at him.

⁴⁰ “So!” they said. “You were going to destroy the Temple and build it in three days, were you? Save yourself, if you’re God’s son! Come down from the cross!”

⁴¹ The chief priests, too, and the scribes and the elders, mocked him.

⁴² “He rescued others,” they said, “but he can’t rescue himself! All right, so he’s the King of Israel!—well, let him come down from the cross right now, and then we’ll really believe that he is! ⁴³ He trusted in God; let God deliver him now, if he’s so keen on him—after all, he did say he was God’s son!”

⁴⁴ The brigands who were crucified alongside him heaped insults on him as well.

The death of God’s son

⁴⁵ From noon until mid-afternoon there was darkness over the whole land. ⁴⁶ About the middle of the afternoon Jesus shouted out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani!”—which means, “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?”

⁴⁷ Some of the people who were standing there heard it and said, “This fellow’s calling Elijah!”

⁴⁸ One of them ran at once and got a sponge. He filled it with vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave him a drink.

⁴⁹ The others said, “Wait a bit. Let’s see if Elijah is going to come and rescue him!”

⁵⁰ But Jesus shouted out loudly one more time, and then breathed his last gasp.

⁵¹ At that instant the Temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks were split, ⁵² and the tombs burst open. Many bodies of the sleeping holy ones were raised. ⁵³ They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection, and went into the holy city, where they appeared to many people.

⁵⁴ When the centurion and the others with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that happened, they were scared out of their wits.

“He really was God’s son!” they said.

⁵⁵ There were several women there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee, helping to look after his needs. ⁵⁶ They included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

The burial of Jesus

⁵⁷ When evening came, a rich man from Arimathea arrived. He was called Joseph, and he, too, was a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ He went to Pilate and requested the body of Jesus. Pilate gave the order that it should be given to him.

⁵⁹ So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. ⁶⁰ He laid it in his own new tomb, which he had carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the doorway of the tomb, and went away.

⁶¹ Mary Magdalene was there, and so was the other Mary. They were sitting opposite the tomb.

⁶² On the next day (that is, the day after Preparation Day), the chief priests and the Pharisees went as a group to Pilate.

⁶³ “Sir,” they said, “when that deceiver was still alive, we recall that he said, ‘After three days, I’ll rise again.’ ⁶⁴ So please give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise his disciples might come and steal him away, and then tell the people, ‘He’s been raised from the dead!’ and so the last deception would be worse than the first.”

⁶⁵ “You can have a guard,” said Pilate; “go and make it as secure as you know how.” ⁶⁶ So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and putting a guard on watch.