Jesus Is Sentenced to Death
(Matthew 27.15-31; Mark 15.6-20; Luke 23.13-25)

John 18 Pilate went back out and said, "I don't find this man guilty of anything! ³⁹And since I usually set a prisoner free for you at Passover, would you like for me to set free the king of the Jews?"
⁴⁰They shouted, "No, not him! We want Barabbas." Now Barabbas was a terrorist.
John 19 Pilate gave orders for Jesus to be beaten with a whip. ²The soldiers made a crown out of thorn branches and put it on Jesus. Then they put a purple robe on him. ³They came up to him and said, "Hey, you king of the Jews!" They also hit him with their fists.
⁴Once again Pilate went out. This time he said, "I will have Jesus brought out to you again. Then you can see for yourselves that I have not found him guilty."
⁵Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said, "Here is the man!"
⁶When the chief priests and the temple police saw him, they yelled, "Nail him to a cross! Nail him to a cross!"
Pilate told them, "You take him and nail him to a cross! I don't find him guilty of anything."
⁷The crowd replied, "He claimed to be the Son of God! Our Law says that he must be put to death."
⁸When Pilate heard this, he was terrified. ⁹He went back inside and asked Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus did not answer.
¹⁰"Why won't you answer my question?" Pilate asked. "Don't you know that I have the power to let you go free or to nail you to a cross?"
¹¹Jesus replied, "If God had not given you the power, you couldn't do anything at all to me. But the one who handed me over to you did something even worse."
¹²Then Pilate wanted to set Jesus free. But the crowd again yelled, "If you set this man free, you are no friend of the Emperor! Anyone who claims to be a king is an enemy of the Emperor."
¹³When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out. Then he sat down on the judge's bench at the place known as "The Stone Pavement." In Aramaic this pavement is called "Gabbatha." ¹⁴It was about noon on the day before Passover, and Pilate said to the crowd, "Look at your king!"
¹⁵"Kill him! Kill him!" they yelled. "Nail him to a cross!"
"So you want me to nail your king to a cross?" Pilate asked.
The chief priests replied, "The Emperor is our king!" ¹⁶Then Pilate handed Jesus over to be nailed to a cross.

King Hezekiah of Judah
(2 Kings 18.1-3)

2 Chronicles 29 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled twenty-nine years from Jerusalem. His mother was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. ²Hezekiah obeyed the LORD by doing right, just as his ancestor David had done.

The Temple Is Purified

³In the first month of the first year of Hezekiah's rule, he unlocked the doors to the LORD's temple and had them repaired. ⁴Then he called the priests and Levites to the east courtyard of the temple ⁵and said:

It's time to purify the temple of the LORD God of our ancestors. You Levites must first go through the ceremony to make yourselves clean, then go into the temple and bring out everything that is unclean and unacceptable to the LORD. ⁶Some of our ancestors were unfaithful and disobeyed the LORD our God. Not only did they turn their backs on the LORD, but they also completely ignored his temple. ⁷They locked the doors, then let the lamps go out and stopped burning incense and offering sacrifices to him. ⁸The LORD became terribly angry at the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and everyone was shocked and horrified at what he did to punish them. Not only were ⁹our ancestors killed in battle, but our own children and wives were taken captive.

¹⁰So I have decided to renew our agreement with the LORD God of Israel. Maybe then he will stop being so angry at us. ¹¹Let's not waste any time, my friends. You are the ones who were chosen to be the LORD's priests and to offer him sacrifices.

^12-14When Hezekiah finished talking, the following Levite leaders went to work:
Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah from the Kohath clan; Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel from the Merari clan; Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah from the Gershon clan; Shimri and Jeuel from the Elizaphan clan; Zechariah and Mattaniah from the Asaph clan; Jehuel and Shimei from the Heman clan; Shemaiah and Uzziel from the Jeduthun clan.
¹⁵These leaders gathered together the rest of the Levites, and they all went through the ceremony to make themselves clean. Then they began to purify the temple according to the Law of the LORD, just as Hezekiah had commanded.
¹⁶The priests went into the temple and carried out everything that was unclean. They put these things in the courtyard, and from there, the Levites carried them outside the city to Kidron Valley.
¹⁷The priests and Levites began their work on the first day of the first month. It took them one week to purify the courtyards of the temple and another week to purify the temple. So on the sixteenth day of that same month ¹⁸they went back to Hezekiah and said:

Your Majesty, we have finished our work. The entire temple is now pure again, and so is the altar and its utensils, as well as the table for the sacred loaves of bread and its utensils. ¹⁹And we have brought back all the things that King Ahaz took from the temple during the time he was unfaithful to God. We purified them and put them back in front of the altar.

Worship in the Temple

²⁰Right away, Hezekiah called together the officials of Jerusalem, and they went to the temple. ²¹They brought with them seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven goats as sacrifices to take away the sins of Hezekiah's family and of the people of Judah, as well as to purify the temple. Hezekiah told the priests, who were descendants of Aaron, to sacrifice these animals on the altar.
²²The priests killed the bulls, the rams, and the lambs, then splattered the blood on the altar. ²³They took the goats to Hezekiah and the worshipers, and they laid their hands on the animals. ²⁴The priests then killed the goats and splattered the blood on the altar as a sacrifice to take away the sins of everyone in Israel, because Hezekiah had commanded that these sacrifices be made for all the people of Israel.
²⁵Next, Hezekiah assigned the Levites to their places in the temple. He gave them cymbals, harps, and other stringed instruments, according to the instructions that the LORD had given King David and the two prophets, Gad and Nathan. ²⁶The Levites were ready to play the instruments that had belonged to David; the priests were ready to blow the trumpets.
²⁷As soon as Hezekiah gave the signal for the sacrifices to be burned on the altar, the musicians began singing praises to the LORD and playing their instruments, ²⁸and everyone worshiped the LORD. This continued until the last animal was sacrificed.
²⁹After that, Hezekiah and the crowd of worshipers knelt down and worshiped the LORD. ³⁰Then Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to sing the songs of praise that David and Asaph the prophet had written. And so they bowed down and joyfully sang praises to the LORD.
³¹Hezekiah said to the crowd, "Now that you are once again acceptable to the LORD, bring sacrifices and offerings to give him thanks."
The people did this, and some of them voluntarily brought animals to be offered as sacrifices. ³²Seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs were brought as sacrifices to please the LORD; ³³six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep were brought as sacrifices to ask the LORD's blessing. ³⁴There were not enough priests to skin all these animals, because many of the priests had not taken the time to go through the ceremony to make themselves clean. However, since all the Levites had made themselves clean, they helped the priests until the last animal was skinned. ³⁵Besides all the sacrifices that were burned on the altar, the fat from the other animal sacrifices was burned, and the offerings of wine were poured over the altar.
So the temple was once again used for worshiping the LORD. ³⁶Hezekiah and the people of Judah celebrated, because God had helped them make this happen so quickly.

Psalm 85
[A psalm by the people of Korah for the music leader.]
A Prayer for Peace

¹Our LORD, you have blessed your land
and made all go well for Jacob's descendants.
²You have forgiven the sin
and taken away the guilt of your people.
³Your fierce anger is no longer aimed at us.

⁴Our LORD and our God, you save us!
Please bring us back home and don't be angry.
⁵Will you always be angry with us and our families?
⁶Won't you give us fresh life
and let your people be glad because of you?
⁷Show us your love and save us!

⁸I will listen to you, LORD God,
because you promise peace to those
who are faithful and no longer foolish.
⁹You are ready to rescue everyone who worships you,
so that you will live with us in all of your glory.

¹⁰Love and loyalty will come together;
goodness and peace will unite.
¹¹Loyalty will sprout from the ground;
justice will look down from the sky above.

¹²Our LORD, you will bless us;
our land will produce wonderful crops.
¹³Justice will march in front,
making a path for you to follow.