Readings

Luke 23:26–49 (NIV84)

²⁶As they 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.

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

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

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

³⁰Then “ ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’

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

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

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

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

³⁵The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”

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

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

³⁸There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

³⁹One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

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

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

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

⁴³Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

⁴⁴It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,

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

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

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

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

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