Mark 15 - EasyEnglish Bible 2024（EASY）

Chapter 15Pilate asks Jesus questions

1Very early the next morning, all the Jewish leaders met together. The leaders of the priests met with the leaders, the teachers of God's Law, and the other important Jews. They decided what they would do. They tied Jesus' hands and feet and they took him to Pilate's house. They put him under Pilate's authority.

2Pilate asked Jesus, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’

Jesus replied, ‘You have said it.’

3Then the leaders of the priests told Pilate that Jesus had done many bad things.

4So Pilate asked him again, ‘What is your answer? You should say something! Listen! They are saying that you have done many bad things.’

5But Jesus still did not reply to what the men were saying against him. Pilate was very surprised about that.

Pilate asks the people what he should do with Jesus

6During the Passover festival each year, Pilate let one person go free out of the prison. The people had to ask him for the person that they wanted.

7A man called Barabbas was in the prison at that time. He and some other men had fought against the Roman rulers. And they had killed someone when they were fighting.

8The crowd came to Pilate. They asked him to do what he usually did at this time.

9Pilate asked the people, ‘Do you want me to let the king of the Jews go free?’

10Pilate knew why the leaders of the priests had brought Jesus to him. They were jealous because people liked Jesus so much.

11But the leaders of the priests talked strongly to the people. They said, ‘Ask Pilate to let Barabbas go free instead of Jesus.’

12Pilate asked the crowd again, ‘So what should I do to Jesus? He is the man that you call “the king of the Jews”.’

13The people shouted back to Pilate, ‘Kill him on a cross!’

14Pilate asked, ‘Why should I kill him? What bad things has he done?’

But the people shouted even louder, ‘Kill him on a cross!’

15Pilate decided to do what the crowd wanted. So he let Barabbas go free. He said to his soldiers, ‘Hit Jesus many times with a whip. Then take him and fix him on a cross to die.’

16So the soldiers took Jesus to the yard at the ruler's house. They told all the soldiers in their group to come there.

17Then they put a purple coat on Jesus. They used some branches with thorns to make a crown for him. They put it on his head.

18Then the soldiers began to laugh at Jesus. They said, ‘Hello, king of the Jews, you are great!’

19They took a stick and they hit him on the head with it many times. They spat on him. Then they went down on their knees in front of him. They told him how great he was.

20When they had stopped laughing at him, they took the purple coat off him. They put his own clothes back on him. Then they took him away to the place where they would kill him on a cross.

The soldiers fix Jesus on a cross to kill him

21When the soldiers were taking Jesus out to that place, a man called Simon was there. He was coming in from outside the city. He was from the city of Cyrene, and he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. The soldiers told Simon that he must carry Jesus' cross.

22The soldiers took Jesus to a place that is called Golgotha. (Golgotha means ‘the place of a skull’.)

23They tried to give Jesus some wine to drink. They had mixed some medicine called myrrh into the wine. But Jesus would not drink it.

24Then the soldiers fixed Jesus onto the cross. They took his clothes for themselves. They played a game with dice to decide which soldier would receive each of his clothes.

25It was about nine o'clock in the morning when the soldiers fixed Jesus to the cross.

26They put a notice there to show the reason why they were killing him. It said, ‘The King of the Jews’.

27They also put two robbers on crosses near to Jesus. One robber was on Jesus' right side. The other robber was on his left side.

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29The people who walked near there insulted Jesus. They laughed at him and they said, ‘Oh! You said that you would destroy the temple. And you said that in three days you would build it again.

30If you can really do that, save yourself. Come down from the cross!’

31The leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law laughed at him. They said to each other, ‘This man saved other people, did he? But he cannot save his own life!

32If he is the Messiah, the king of Israel, he should come down from the cross now. Then we would see it and we would believe in him.’ The two men who were on the crosses next to Jesus also insulted him.

Jesus dies on the cross

33At midday, the whole country became dark for three hours.

34At three o'clock in the afternoon, Jesus shouted loudly, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ That means, ‘My God, my God, why have you left me alone?’

35Some people who were standing near there heard him. They said to each other, ‘Look! He is shouting to Elijah.’

36One man ran to get a piece of cloth. He poured bitter wine on it, and he put it on the end of a stick. Then he lifted it up to Jesus so that he could drink the wine from it. The man said, ‘Wait! Now we will see if Elijah comes to take him down from the cross.’

37Then Jesus shouted loudly, and after that he died.

38And the curtain inside the temple completely tore into two parts from the top down to the bottom.

39The captain of the soldiers was standing there in front of Jesus. He saw how Jesus died. He said, ‘It must be true! This man really was the Son of God.’

40Some women were also there. They were watching these events from a long way away. Mary from Magdala was one of the women. Mary the mother of the younger James and Joses was also there. Salome was there too.

41These women had travelled with Jesus when he was in Galilee and they had helped him. Many other women were also there near the cross. They had come to Jerusalem with Jesus.

Pilate lets Joseph take Jesus' dead body to bury it

42It was Friday and the Jews were preparing for their day of rest the next day.

43That evening, a man called Joseph went to see Pilate. Joseph was from a town called Arimathea. He was a good man and he belonged to the group of important Jewish leaders. He was waiting for the time when the kingdom of God would come. Joseph bravely asked Pilate for the dead body of Jesus to bury it.

44Pilate was surprised that Jesus had already died. He asked the captain of the soldiers to come to him. He asked him if Jesus had already died.

45The captain told Pilate that Jesus was already dead. So then Pilate let Joseph go and take Jesus' dead body.

46Joseph bought a piece of linen cloth. He took Jesus' body down from the cross and he put the cloth around it. Then he put the body into a grave hole in a rock. After this, Joseph rolled a big stone across the front of the hole to shut it.

47Mary from Magdala and Mary the mother of Joses were watching. They saw where Joseph had put Jesus' dead body.