April 13, 2025
Palm Sunday of the Passion
The passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke
Everyone in the council led Jesus off to Pilate.
They started accusing him and said,
“We caught this man trying to get our people to riot
and stop paying taxes to the Emperor.
He also claims that he is the Messiah, our king.”
Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“Those are your words,” Jesus answered.
Pilate told the chief priests and the crowd,
“I don’t find him guilty of anything.”
But they all kept on saying,
“He has been teaching and causing trouble all over Judea.
He started in Galilee and has now come all the way here.”
When Pilate heard this, he asked,
“Is this man from Galilee?”
After Pilate learned that Jesus came from the region ruled by Herod,
he sent him to Herod, who was in Jerusalem at that time.
For a long time Herod had wanted to see Jesus
and was very happy because he finally had this chance.
He had heard many things about Jesus
and hoped to see him work a miracle.
Herod asked him a lot of questions,
but Jesus did not answer.
Then the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses
stood up and accused him of all kinds of bad things.
Herod and his soldiers made fun of Jesus and insulted him.
They put a fine robe on him and sent him back to Pilate.
That same day Herod and Pilate became friends,
even though they had been enemies before this.
Pilate called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people.
He told them, “You brought Jesus to me and said he
was a troublemaker.
But I have questioned him here in front of you,
and I have not found him guilty
of anything that you say he has done.
Herod didn’t find him guilty either and sent him back.
This man doesn’t deserve to be put to death!
I will just have him beaten with a whip and set free.”
Pilate said this, because at every Passover
he was supposed to set one prisoner free
for the Jewish people.
But the whole crowd shouted, “Kill Jesus!
Give us Barabbas!”
Now Barabbas was in jail because he had started a riot in the city
and had murdered someone.
Pilate wanted to set Jesus free, so he spoke again to the crowds.
But they kept shouting, “Nail him to a cross!
Nail him to a cross!”
Pilate spoke to them a third time,
“But what crime has he done? I have not found him guilty of anything
for which he should be put to death.
I will have him beaten with a whip and set free.”
The people kept on shouting as loud as they could
for Jesus to be put to death.
Finally, Pilate gave in.
He freed the man who was in jail for rioting and murder,
because he was the one the crowd wanted to be set free.
Then Pilate handed Jesus over
for them to do what they wanted with him.
As Jesus was being led away,
some soldiers grabbed hold of a man from Cyrene named Simon.
He was coming in from the fields,
but they put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
A large crowd was following Jesus,
and in the crowd a lot of women were crying and weeping for him.
Jesus turned to the women and said:
“Women of Jerusalem, don’t cry for me!
Cry for yourselves and for your children.
Someday people will say,
‘Women who never had children are really fortunate!’
At that time everyone will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’
They will say to the hills, ‘Hide us!’
If this can happen when the wood is green,
what do you think will happen when it is dry?”

Two criminals were led out to be put to death with Jesus.
When the soldiers came to a place called “The Skull,”
they nailed Jesus to a cross.
They also nailed the two criminals to crosses,
one on each side of Jesus.
Jesus said, “Father, forgive these people!
They don’t know what they’re doing.”
While the people stood there watching Jesus,
the soldiers gambled for his clothes.
The leaders insulted him by saying, “He saved others.
Now he should save himself,
if he really is God’s chosen Messiah!”
The soldiers made fun of Jesus and brought him some wine.
They said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!”
Above him was a sign that said,
“This is the King of the Jews.”
One of the criminals hanging there also insulted Jesus by saying,
“Aren’t you the Messiah?
Save yourself and save us!”
But the other criminal told the first one off,
“Don’t you fear God?
Aren’t you getting the same punishment as this man?
We got what was coming to us,
but he didn’t do anything wrong.”

Then he said to Jesus,
“Remember me when you come into power!”
Jesus replied,
“I promise that today you will be with me in paradise.”
Around noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way
until the middle of the afternoon.
The sun stopped shining,
and the curtain in the temple split down the middle.
Jesus shouted, “Father, I put myself in your hands!”
Then he died.
When the Roman officer saw what had happened,
he praised God and said,
“Jesus must really have been a good man!”
A crowd had gathered to see the terrible sight.
After they saw it, they felt brokenhearted and went home.
All of Jesus’ close friends and the women who had come with him from Galilee
stood at a distance and watched.
The Gospel of the Lord.