LESSON FOURTEEN
JESUS ON TRIAL
Matthew 27:3-10,22-25; Mark 15:12-14; Luke 23:20-23; John 19:5-15
The Jewish religious leaders said Jesus was guilty of blasphemy. They decided to take Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor. They wanted Pilate to try Jesus and sentence him to death.
When Judas found out about this, he was ashamed. He had betrayed Jesus. He had done a very terrible thing.
Judas took the money back to the religious leaders in the temple. “I have done wrong,” he said. “Jesus is innocent.”
“We don’t care about that,” they said.
Then Judas threw the money down and left the temple. He was so ashamed of what he had done that he wanted to die. He found a place and hung himself.
The Jewish leaders led Jesus to Pilate. Pilate asked Jesus many questions but he could not find any fault in Jesus.
While Pilate was trying to decide what to do, he got a message from his wife. His wife said, “I had a dream that told me Jesus is innocent. Do not do anything to him.”
So Pilate told the people, “This man does not deserve to die. What shall I do with him?”
The crowd yelled, “Crucify him!”
Pilate asked, “What has he done?”
The crowd said, “He claims to be the Son of God. Our law says he should die for blasphemy.”
When Pilate heard that Jesus claimed to be God’s Son, he was very afraid. He asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?”
Jesus didn’t answer Pilate.
Pilate said, “Don’t you know I have power to free you or to crucify you?”
Jesus told Pilate, “You can only do what God allows you to do. The only power you have over me is given to you by God.”
Pilate didn’t want to crucify Jesus. He was afraid of Jesus. But he was afraid of the people, too. The people were yelling, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” The crowd was getting out of control.
Pilate didn’t want to decide what to do with Jesus. He didn’t want to be responsible for doing the wrong thing. So Pilate brought some water to a place where the crowd could see him. He washed his hands in the water. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he told the crowd. “Whatever you do to him is your responsibility.”
“We are responsible,” they said. Then they took Jesus away to be crucified.
VOCABULARY
Names of People
Pilate
Other
on trial
decide (v)
try (v)
innocent (adj)
hang (v)
fault (n)
message (n)
dream (n)
yell (v)
crucify (v)
free (v)
allow (v)
out of control
responsible (adj)
responsibility (n)
IRREGULAR VERBS
Present Past Past Participle Future
find found has found will find
hang hung has hung will hang
lead led has led will lead
QUESTIONS
- What did Judas do because he was so ashamed of betraying Jesus?
- Could Pilate find any fault in Jesus? Did he thing Jesus deserved to die?
- What did the crowd want Pilate to do to Jesus?
- Where did Jesus say Pilate got his power?
- What did Pilate do to show he didn’t want to be responsible for Jesus’ death?