Matthew 27:1-20

1Early the next morning, all the leaders of the priests and the important Jews met together. They decided how to make the Roman rulers kill Jesus.

2They tied Jesus' hands and feet and then they took him to Pilate's house. They put him under the authority of Pilate, who was the Roman ruler.

3Judas heard that the Jewish leaders wanted the Roman rulers to kill Jesus. Judas was the man who had helped Jesus' enemies to take hold of him. Now he was very sorry about what he had done. So he took back the 30 silver coins to the leaders of the priests and the important Jews.

4He said to them, ‘I have done the wrong thing. I helped you to take hold of a man who has done nothing wrong.’ They said to Judas, ‘That is not important to us. That is your problem.’

5So Judas took the money and he threw it down on the floor in the temple. Then he went away. He hung himself from a rope so that he died.

6The leaders of the priests picked up the coins. They said, ‘We used this money to catch and kill a man. So it is against our Law to use this same money for the temple.’

7They decided to use the money to buy a field. They wanted to use the field to bury foreign people who died in the city. The field had been called ‘The Pot-maker's Field’.

8After this, it was called ‘The Field of Blood’. It is still called that even today.

9So the words that the prophet Jeremiah wrote long ago now became true. He had said, ‘Then they took the 30 silver coins. It was the amount of money the people of Israel had agreed to pay for the man.

10They used this money to buy the pot-maker's field. The Lord God had told me to do this.’

11Now Jesus stood in front of the Roman ruler, Pilate. The ruler asked Jesus, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Jesus replied, ‘You have said it.’

12The leaders of the priests and the important Jews spoke against Jesus. They said that he had done many bad things. Jesus did not answer them.

13So Pilate said to Jesus, ‘You hear what these men are saying against you. You should reply.’

14But Jesus did not reply to what the men were saying against him, not even to one thing. Pilate was very surprised about this.

15Each year, at the time for the Passover festival, the Roman ruler would let one person go free out of the prison. The people could choose which person should go free.

16At that time, there was a man called Barabbas in prison. Everyone knew about the bad things that he had done.

17When the crowd came together at Pilate's house, Pilate asked them, ‘Who do you want me to let go free? Should Barabbas go free? Or should it be Jesus, who is called the Messiah?’

18Pilate knew why the Jewish leaders had brought Jesus to him. They were jealous because people liked Jesus so much.

19Pilate was sitting on his special seat as a judge. Then his wife sent a message to him. She said, ‘Do not do anything to that man. He has done nothing wrong. Last night I had a dream about him. It gave me a lot of trouble in my mind.’

20But the leaders of the priests and the important Jews talked to the crowds of people. They said, ‘You must ask Pilate to let Barabbas go free. Then he must tell the soldiers to kill Jesus.’