Mark 15:16-41

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 dark red 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 dark red 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.

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 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.

28[The Bible says that this would happen. It says, ‘People thought of him as someone who did not obey God's Law.’]

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.

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 cheap 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. ‘It must be true!’ he said. ‘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.