Jesus before Pilate

Plain English Version (PEV)

Mat 27:11–26

Mrk 15:1–15

1 Early in the morning the Jewish council men talked about what they will do with Jesus. That council mob were the leaders of the Jewish ceremonies, and the law teachers, and the elders. They tied Jesus up and made him walk over to the big government boss, whose name was Pilate. They asked Pilate to judge Jesus.
2 So Pilate asked him, “Are you the big boss of the Jewish nation?” Jesus answered, “Those are your words.”
3 Those leaders of the Jewish ceremonies blamed Jesus and told Pilate he did a lot of bad things, but Jesus didn’t say anything.
4 Then Pilate said to him, “Listen to what they say. Why don’t you say something for yourself?”
5 But Jesus said nothing, and Pilate was really shocked.
6 Something special happened every year at the ceremony time called Passover. Pilate always did something special for the people in Jerusalem. He let one prisoner go free from the jail.
7 At this Passover time some of the Jerusalem people came to Pilate and asked him to let one prisoner go. They came up to Pilate while Jesus was still there. At that same time there was a murderer called Barabbas in jail there. Before this time Barabbas and his gang fought against the government and killed some of the government people, so the soldiers grabbed him and put him in jail.
8 Pilate knew that the leaders of the Jewish ceremonies were jealous of Jesus and that was why they brought him to Pilate. They wanted Pilate to kill him. So when those Jerusalem people asked Pilate to let one prisoner go, he said, “All right. How about I let Jesus go, this man you say is your big boss. What do you reckon?” But the ceremony leaders stirred up all those people, and the people told Pilate, “No. Not him. We want you to let Barabbas go out of jail.”
9 Pilate said, “So what do you want me to do with this man you call the big boss of you Jewish people?”
10 They all yelled, “Kill him. Nail him to a cross and leave him to die.”
11 Pilate said, “Why? What did he do that was so bad?” But they didn’t listen, they yelled even louder, “Kill him. Nail him to a cross.”
12 Pilate didn’t want any trouble, so he did what that mob wanted. He let Barabbas go out of jail and he told his Roman soldiers to whip Jesus a lot. After they finished whipping him, Pilate told them to nail him to a cross and leave him to die.
13 The soldiers took Jesus outside into the yard of the big house where Pilate lived. They called out to the rest of the soldiers there to come out into that yard.
14 They put a purple coat on Jesus. They found some prickly branches and made those branches into a thing that looked like a crown. Then they put it on his head
15 and rubbished him. They got down on their knees in front of Jesus and said, “Hey. Your Majesty. You are the big boss of the Jews.”

Luk 23:1–25

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.”