Luke 23

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1 The Jewish leaders kept on blaming Jesus. They told Pilate, “He gets people everywhere to go wild. He started to do that in Galilee country, then in Judea country, and now he is doing it here in Jerusalem.”

2 When Pilate heard them say that, he asked them, “Does he come from Galilee country?”

3 They said, “Yes, Jesus is from Galilee.” The big boss of Galilee was Herod, and he was visiting Jerusalem at that time. So Pilate sent Jesus to him, to let Herod be his judge.

4 Herod was very happy to see Jesus. You see, a long time before that day Herod heard about Jesus, so he always wanted to meet him. He wanted to see Jesus do something powerful.

5 So Herod asked him a lot of questions, but Jesus didn’t answer any of them.

6 The leaders of the Jewish ceremonies and their law teachers stood there all the time, shouting out and blaming Jesus.

7 Then Herod and his soldiers started laughing at Jesus and rubbishing him. They put a pretty coat on him, the kind that a boss wears. Then they sent him back to Pilate.

8 You know, before that day Herod and Pilate didn’t like each other, but on that day they became friends.

9 A big mob of people followed Jesus. There were a lot of women among them. They were really sad. They were crying really loud, and they were hitting themselves.

10 So Jesus turned around and said to them, “You women that live here in Jerusalem, don’t cry for me, but cry for yourselves, and for your kids.

11 Listen, soon bad things are going to happen to everybody. The time will come when people will say, ‘Those women that can’t have babies, and those that don’t have to feed babies, they are the lucky ones.’

12 Things will be so bad that people will want to die, so they will ask the mountains to fall on top of them, and kill them. And they will ask the hills to bury them.

13 You see, I didn’t do anything wrong and they are hurting me. But you mob do wrong things, so they will hurt you a lot more.”

14 One of the criminals hanging on a cross beside Jesus was rubbishing him, and said, “You reckon you are God’s special man, do you? Then save yourself, and save us too. But I reckon you can’t do it.”

15 But the other criminal hanging on a cross said, “Don’t talk like that. Have a bit of respect for God. Listen, they are killing the 3 of us together.

16 They are killing you and me because we did really bad things, but this man, Jesus, he didn’t do anything wrong.”

17 Then that criminal talked to Jesus. He said, “Hey, Jesus, you are going to get God’s people together into one family. When you do that, don’t forget me. I want to be there with you too.”

18 Jesus said, “Yes, you will be with me today, in God’s good place called Paradise. That’s for sure.”