Readings for Good Friday

Episodes

• Jesus in the Hands of the Romans (Mark 15:1–20; parallels Matt 27:1–31; Luke 23:1–25. John 18:29–19:16)
• Jesus Is Crucified; Activities on the Cross (Mark 15:21–32; parallels Matthew 27:32–44; Luke 23:26‒43. John 19:17‒24)
• Jesus’ Last Moments and Words (Mark 15:33–36; parallels Matthew 27:45–49; Luke 23:44. John 19:25‒29)
• The Death of Jesus (Mark 15:37–41; parallels Matthew 27:50–56; Luke 23:45–49. John 19:30‒37)
• The Burial of Jesus (Mark 15:42–47; parallels Matthew 27:57–66; Luke 23:50–56. John 19:38–42)

 

Jesus Tried and Condemned: Mark 15:1–15; Matthew 27:3–10; Luke 23:4–12; John 18:28–19:16

Mark’s account of Jesus’ trial before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate is supplemented by the other Synoptics, each of which adds episodes lacking in the Marcan original. Matthew adds an account of the remorse and suicide of Judas Iscariot. Luke provides the story of Jesus’ examination by Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee who was in Jerusalem for Passover. John provides a longer account of the Roman trial, which includes an important exchange between Pilate and Jesus.

See the discussion in Greater Love Hath No Man, 148–165.

Remains of the "Hidden Gate," which led from Herod's Palace, where Pilate was headquartered, to outside the city walls

Mark

15

¹Then first thing in the morning, when the chief priests had reached a decision together with the elders, the experts at the law, and the whole Sanhedrin, after they had bound Jesus, they led him away and handed him over to Pilate. ²Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” In response he said, “That is what you say.” ³The chief priests then began accusing him of many things. ⁴So Pilate asked him again, “Are you not giving any response? Look at how many accusations they are making against you!” ⁵Yet Jesus gave no further response, which astonished Pilate.

⁶At each festival Pilate used to release a prisoner, whomever they requested. ⁷Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with revolutionaries who had committed murder during an uprising. ⁸When the crowd had arrived, they began asking that he do what he had always done for them. ⁹Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews?” ¹⁰for he understood that the chief priests had handed Jesus over out of envy. ¹¹The chief priests, however, incited the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas to them instead.

¹²So in response Pilate said to them again, “What, then, do you want me to do with him whom you call the king of the Jews?” ¹³They cried out in turn, “Crucify him!” ¹⁴Pilate said, “Why, what crime has he committed?” Yet they cried out even more loudly, “Crucify him!” ¹⁵Then Pilate, because he wanted to offer a favor to the crowd, released Barabbas to them, and after having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified.

 

Matthew

27

³When Judas, who had handed Jesus over, saw that he was condemned, he returned the thirty silver pieces to the chief priests and elders, because he regretted it, ⁴saying, “I have sinned by handing over innocent blood!” They said to him, “What concern is that to us? See to it yourself!” ⁵After he had thrown the silver pieces into the temple, he withdrew, and after he had gone out, he hanged himself. ⁶Then the chief priests, when they had picked up the silver pieces, said, “Putting these into the temple treasury is not permitted, for they are the reward for a bloody deed.” ⁷So they reached the decision to buy the potter’s field with the money to use as a burial place for foreigners. ⁸Because of this, that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. ⁹Then was that which was said through Jeremiah the prophet fulfilled, when he said, “And they took thirty silver pieces, the price set upon him by the children of Israel, ¹⁰and they used them to buy the potter’s field, just as the Lord had directed me.”

 

Luke

23

 ⁴Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I do not find any grounds for legal action against this man.” ⁵But they insisted, saying, “He has been inciting the people with his teaching throughout all Judea, beginning in Galilee even to right here.” ⁶When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. ⁷After he learned that he was from Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem during those days.

⁸When Herod saw Jesus, he was delighted, for he had wanted to see him for a long time because he had heard about him and wanted to see some miraculous sign performed by him. ⁹He questioned him at length, but Jesus did not give him any answer. ¹⁰But the chief priests and the experts at the law had arrayed themselves against Jesus, accusing him vehemently. ¹¹After Herod, together with his guards, had treated him with disdain, ridiculed him, and dressed him in brightly shining clothing, they sent him back to Pilate. ¹²Now Pilate and Herod became friendly with each other that day, for they had been in a state of enmity with each other before this.

 

Mihály Munkácsy, "Christ in Front of Pilate"

John

18

²⁸Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s official residence. It was morning, and they themselves did not want to go into the governor’s residence so they could avoid making themselves ritually impure and still eat the Passover. ²⁹Therefore, Pilate went out to them and said, “What charge are you bringing against this man? ³⁰They answered and said to him, “If he were not someone who had done something wrong, we would not have handed him over to you.” ³¹And so Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.” “The Jews” said, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death,” ³²so that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled that he spoke to indicate by what kind of death he was going to die.

³³Then Pilate went back into the governor’s residence, summoned Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” ³⁴Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” ³⁵Pilate responded, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own people and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” ³⁶Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my retainers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to ‘the Jews.’ Yet in truth my kingdom is not from here.” ³⁷Pilate said to him, “So you are a king, then?” Jesus responded, “You are saying that I am a king. I was born for this, and for this I came into the world: to bear witness to the truth. Every person who is on the side of truth hears my voice.” ³⁸Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

After he had said this, he went back to “the Jews” and said to them, “I do not find any grounds for legal complaint against him. ³⁹Yet you have a custom that I release one person to you during the Passover. Do you want me, then, to release to you the king of the Jews?” ⁴⁰They shouted back, saying, “Not this man! Barabbas instead!” Now Barabbas was an insurgent.

 

Antonio Ciseri, "Ecce Homo"

19

¹So Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. ²Then the soldiers, after they had woven a crown out of thorns, put it on his head and dressed him in a purple robe. ³They kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” and slapping him in the face. ⁴Pilate came back out and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him back out to you so that you may know that I have found no grounds for complaint against him.” ⁵Jesus came out, wearing the thorny crown and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Look at the man!”

⁶When the chief priests and their retainers saw him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “You take him and crucify him. I find no grounds for complaint against him.” ⁷“The Jews” responded to him, “We have a law, and according to our law, he ought to die because he pretended to be the Son of God.” ⁸When Pilate heard this, he grew more afraid.

⁹Then he went back into the governor’s residence and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus did not give him an answer. ¹⁰So Pilate said to him, “Are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” ¹¹Jesus responded,

“You do not have any authority over me

except what was given to you from above.

For this reason, the one who handed me over to you

has the greater sin.”

¹²From that point on, Pilate kept trying to release Jesus, but “the Jews” shouted, saying, “If you release him, you are not a friend of Caesar. Everyone who pretends to be a king acts in opposition to Caesar.” ¹³When Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the tribunal platform in a place called “Strewn Stones,” or in Aramaic Gabbatha. ¹⁴Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover, about noon, and he said to “the Jews,” “Look at your king!” ¹⁵They shouted, “Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Should I crucify your king?” The chief priests responded, “We have no king except for Caesar.” ¹⁶So he handed him over to them to be crucified, and they took charge of Jesus.

 

The Crucifixion: Mark 15:16–37; Luke 23:27‒46; John 19:17–37

Mark’s concise account of Jesus’ crucifixion serves as the foundation for the Synoptic portrayal of the episode, yet while Matthew largely follows the Marcan prototype, Luke makes important additions. As always, the Johannine account stands apart, largely because of its high Christology and the symbolism that it marshals.

See the discussion in Greater Love Hath No Man, 165–178.

Mark

15

 

¹⁶Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the governor’s residence, and they called together the entire cohort. ¹⁷Next they clothed him in purple and, after weaving a crown out of thorns, they put it on him ¹⁸and began to salute him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” ¹⁹They kept striking him on the head with a staff and spitting on him, and, kneeling down, they bowed before him. ²⁰After they had mocked him, they stripped the purple off of him and dressed him in his own clothes. Then they led him out to crucify him.

²¹They pressed into service a certain man passing by who was coming in from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. ²²Then they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated “The Place of the Skull.” ²³Next they gave him some wine mixed with myrrh, but he would not take it. ²⁴So they crucified him, and they divided his articles of clothing, casting lots for them to see who would take what.

²⁵It was at nine o’clock when they crucified him. ²⁶The inscription of the charge against him that had been written was “The King of the Jews.” ²⁷And with him they crucified two insurgents, one on his right hand and one on his left. ²⁸[So the scripture was fulfilled that read, “And he was counted among the criminals.] ²⁹Then those who were passing by demeaned him, shaking their heads and saying, “Ha! You who would destroy the temple and build it within three days! ³⁰Save yourself by coming down from the cross!” ³¹In the same way the chief priests and the experts of the law, mocking him among themselves, said, “He saved others. He cannot save himself!” ³²Let this Christ, the king of Israel, now come down from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Even those who had been crucified with him started insulting him.

³³When it was noon, darkness arose over the whole earth and lasted until three o’clock. ³⁴At three o’clock, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,” which translated is, “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?” ³⁵Some of those who were standing nearby, when they heard this, said, “Look! He is calling Elijah!” ³⁶And someone, running to fill a sponge with wine vinegar, by putting it on a reed, gave him a drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah comes to take him down.” ³⁷Then Jesus, after letting out a great cry, drew his last breath.

³⁸And the veil of the temple was torn into two, from the top to the bottom. ³⁹Now a centurion who was facing him, when he saw how he had drawn his last breath, said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” ⁴⁰There were also women watching at a distance, among whom were Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of the younger James and Joses, and Salome. ⁴¹They had followed and served him when he was in Galilee. Indeed, many other women had accompanied him to Jerusalem.

 

Luke

23

²⁷A great crowd followed him, including women who beat their breasts and bewailed him. ²⁸But Jesus, when he turned to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not mourn for me, only mourn for yourselves and for your children! ²⁹For look, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that have not given birth, and the breasts that have not nursed.’ ³⁰At that time they will begin saying to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us up!’ ³¹for if they do these things to a green tree, what will happen to a dry one?”

³²Two other criminals were also led there to be executed with him. ³³When they came to the place that was called “The Skull,” there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. ³⁴[Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. ³⁵The people stood by, watching, but the leaders ridiculed him, saying, “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Anointed of God, the Chosen One!” ³⁶The soldiers also mocked him by coming up to him and offering him wine vinegar ³⁷and saying, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” ³⁸There was a superscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”

³⁹One of the criminals who had been hung there insulted him, saying, “You are not the Christ, are you? Save yourself and us!” ⁴⁰But the other, rebuking him in response, said, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same condemnation? ⁴¹We have been condemned justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for what we have done, but this man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴²Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” ⁴³Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

⁴⁴By this time it was about noon, and darkness arose over the whole earth until three o’clock. ⁴⁵When the sun ceased shining, the veil of the temple was torn in the middle. ⁴⁶Jesus, after he had cried out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.” After he had said this, he drew his last breath.

Skull Hill or "Gordon's Calvary" near the Garden Tomb

John

19

¹⁷Carrying his own cross, Jesus came to what is called The Place of the Skull, which is called Golgotha in Aramaic. ¹⁸There they crucified him and with him two others, one on each side and Jesus in the middle. ¹⁹Then Pilate wrote a notice and put it on the cross. That which was written was, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” ²⁰Many of “the Jews” read this notice, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. ²¹So the chief priests of “the Jews” started to say to Pilate, “Do not write ‘the King of the Jews’ but ‘This man said, I am the King of the Jews.’” ²²Pilate responded, “What I have written, I have written.”

²³Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier. Likewise, they took his inner tunic, and the tunic was seamless, woven from the top all the way through. ²⁴Therefore they said to each other, “Let’s not tear it. Rather, let us cast lots for it to decide whose it shall be.” This was so the scripture could be fulfilled, which says, “They divided my clothing for themselves, and they cast lots for my apparel.” These are the things that the soldiers did.

²⁵Next to the cross stood the mother of Jesus, the sister of his mother, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. ²⁶When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, look, your son!” ²⁷Then he said to the disciple, “Look, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

²⁸After this, because Jesus knew that everything had been completed, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹A vessel of wine vinegar was standing there, so after they put a sponge full of wine vinegar on a hyssop, they held it to his mouth. ³⁰When Jesus had taken the wine vinegar, he said, “It is completed!” and, after bowing his head, he handed over his spirit.

³¹Then “the Jews,” because it was a preparation day, to avoid having the bodies remain on the cross during the Sabbath—for the day was an especially important Sabbath—asked Pilate that their legs be broken and their bodies removed. ³²So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. ³³But after they came to Jesus, and when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. ³⁵The one who saw this has borne witness, and his witness is trustworthy. He knows that he speaks the truth so that you, too, may continue to believe. ³⁶These things happened so that the scripture might be fulfilled, “No bone of his shall be broken.” ³⁷And another scripture reads, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

 

The Herodian Family Tomb west of Jerusalem, an example of a rich Second Temple tomb with a rolling stone

The Burial: Mark 15:42‒47; John 19:38‒42

See the discussion in Greater Love Hath No Man, 178–182.

Mark

15

⁴²Now as it was already evening, because it was the day of preparation, which is the day before the Sabbath, ⁴³Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the council, who was himself anticipating the Kingdom of God, came and, mustering his courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. ⁴⁴Now Pilate was amazed that he was already dead, so after summoning the centurion, he asked whether Jesus had been dead for long. ⁴⁵When he learned from the centurion that he had been, he granted the corpse to Joseph.

⁴⁶After he had bought a piece of linen cloth and taken the body down from the cross, Joseph wrapped it in the cloth and placed it in a tomb that had been hewn from the rock. Then he rolled a stone in front of the tomb’s entrance. ⁴⁷Mary of Magdala and Mary the mother of Joses were watching where he was laid.

 

Carl Bloch, "The Burial"

John

19

³⁸After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple, although secretly due to his fear of “the Jews,” asked Pilate to allow him to take the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave his permission. And so he came and removed his body. ³⁹Nicodemus, who was the one who first came to Jesus by night, came too, bringing an ointment compounded from myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds. ⁴⁰So they took the body of Jesus and bound it with linen cloths together with spices as was the custom for “the Jews” to prepare a body for burial.

⁴¹There was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. ⁴²So they laid Jesus there on account of the preparation day of “the Jews,” because the tomb was close by.