New Testament Stories

Jesus goes to the Cross

 Then one of the twelve named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests... Matthew 26:14  

                              The chief priests and lawyers were trying to find a way to arrest Jesus and kill Him. One of the disciples named Judas Iscariot, went secretly to the priests. Together they made a plan to capture Jesus.

     After they had eaten the Passover supper, He and His disciples sang a hymn.  Then they walked on the Mount of Olives, a hill not far from Jerusalem. On the way Peter said, "Jesus, I will follow you everywhere. I would go to prison or die for you.

     But Jesus told Peter, " Before the rooster crows in the morning, you will say three times that you do not know me."

     When they got to the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus went a little way from them, and knelt under the trees. He prayed.

      The chief priests and the lawyers were trying to find a way to arrest Him. One of the disciples name Judas, went secretly to the priests. Together they made a plan to secretly capture Jesus.

     "Father, if there is some way to change what is happening, change it! But what You want is what I will do!"

     Then an angel appeared to Him and made Him feel strong. He prayed harder and sweat fell from His forehead in great drops. Then He went back and found that His disciples were so tired that they had fallen into a deep sleep.

     He was still calling them to wake up when Judas came. Judas was leading a crowd of people sent by the chief priests. Judas went up to Jesus and kissed him, so the men could know which one He was. The the temple police grabbed Jesus and dragged Him into the high priests house.

    Peter followed them and waited near a fire in the courtyard. There was a servant girl there who said, "I thing you are a friend of that Jesus." "No," said Peter. "I don't know Him."

     Later a man said, "You are one of the disciples." "You are wrong," said Peter, "I don't know Him.

     Finally, a third person said, " I can tell you are from Galilee. You were with Jesus, weren't you?"

     "I don't know what you are talking about," shouted Peter.  Just then a rooster crowed. Peter remembered Jesus' words to him. "You will say three times you don't know Me."

     Then Peter sat down and cried, and cried. Inside the high priest's house the people that were holding Jesus hit him and made fun of Him. They put a blindfold on Him and called Him names. They said, "If you're a prophet, tell us who hit you?"

     Then the priests all came together and asked Jesus, "Are you the Christ? the Messiah? tells us?"

     "If I tell you, you won't believe Me," said Jesus. "But from now on the Son of man will sit at God's right hand."

     "Are you God's Son then,"  they asked?   

     "You said it yourselves," he answered.

     "What more do you need," the screamed. "We have heard it from His on mouth!"

     Then they took Him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. After he talked to Jesus, Pilate told the priests, "I don't think this man has committed a crime."

     "He gets the people stirred up everywhere He goes," they said. "Even up in Galilee."

     When Pilate found out that Jesus was from Galilee, he sent Him to Herod, the ruler of Galilee. Herod was in Jerusalem for the Passover.

     Herod asked Jesus many questions, but Jesus did not answer at all.

     Then Herod and His guards made fun of Jesus. They dressed Jesus up in a king's robe and sent Him back to Pilate.

     Pilate called the priests, "Jesus did not do anything to be killed for," he said. "I will have Him whipped and then let Him go."

     "No, they cried, crucify Him!"

     Pilate went a called to the crowd. "I always let one prisoner go during the Passover. Shall I let Jesus go? Or the man named Barabbas, who is a murderer and who started a riot?"

     "We want Barabbas!" they cried. "Crucify Jesus!"

     So they led Jesus away to be crucified. On the way they found a man named Simon from the city of Cyrene, and made him help carry the heavy cross.

     They came to a hillside outside the city gates called Calvary or Golgotha, which means the "the place of the skull." There the soldiers named Jesus to the cross.

     Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive these men. They do not know what they are doing."

     They put a sign over Jesus head that said, "This is the King of the Jews."

     At about noon the sky grew dark and stayed dark until three o'clock in the afternoon.

     There was an earthquake, and the curtain in the front of the Holy place in the temple in Jerusalem tore in two.    

     Then Jesus cried out in a loud voice, " Father, I give my Spirit into Your hands!" and He died.

     The Roman captain who was there said, "He must have been the Son of God!"

     A man from Arimathea, named Joseph wrapped the body of Jesus in a clean sheet and took Him to a new tomb in a garden.

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