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  What A Friend We Have In Jesus

  Faith of Our Fathers

    Luke 23:26-56, John 19:16-42

    Luke 23:26-56

    The Crucifixion of Jesus

      26 As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.

      27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him.

      28 Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.

      29 For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!'

      30 Then
    " 'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!"
    and to the hills, "Cover us!" '

      31 For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"

      32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.

      33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.

      34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."  And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

      35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him.  They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is God's Messiah, the Chosen One."

      36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar

      37 and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

      38 There was a written notice above him, which read:  THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

      39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him:  "Aren't you the Messiah?  Save yourself and us!"

      40 But the other criminal rebuked him.  "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence?

      41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."

      42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

      43 Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."

    The Death of Jesus

      44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,

      45 for the sun stopped shining.  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

      46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."  When he had said this, he breathed his last.

      47 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man."

      48 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.

      49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

    The Burial of Jesus

      50 Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man,

      51 who had not consented to their decision and action.  He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God.

      52 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body.

      53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.

      54 It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

      55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.

      56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes.  But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

    John 19:16-42

    The Crucifixion of Jesus

    So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.

      17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).

      18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

      19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross.  It read:  JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

      20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.

      21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews."

      22 Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

      23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining.  This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

      24 "Let's not tear it," they said to one another.  "Let's decide by lot who will get it."
    This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
    "They divided my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment."
    So this is what the soldiers did.

      25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

      26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, "Woman, here is your son,"

      27 and to the disciple, "Here is your mother."  From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

    The Death of Jesus

      28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty."

      29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips.

      30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished."  With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

      31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath.  Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.

      32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other.

      33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

      34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.

      35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.  He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.

      36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled:  "Not one of his bones will be broken,"

      37 and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."

    The Burial of Jesus

      38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus.  Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders.  With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away.

      39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.  Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

      40 Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen.  This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.

      41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.

      42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.


Links to A Drama of the Bible in Five Acts


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