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

John 18 Then Pilate went back outside to the people and said to them, "I cannot find any reason to condemn him. ³⁹But according to the custom you have, I always set free a prisoner for you during the Passover. Do you want me to set free for you the king of the Jews?"
⁴⁰They answered him with a shout, "No, not him! We want Barabbas!" (Barabbas was a bandit.)
John 19 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. ²The soldiers made a crown out of thorny branches and put it on his head; then they put a purple robe on him ³and came to him and said, "Long live the King of the Jews!" And they went up and slapped him.
⁴Pilate went back out once more and said to the crowd, "Look, I will bring him out here to you to let you see that I cannot find any reason to condemn him." ⁵So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Look! Here is the man!"
⁶When the chief priests and the Temple guards saw him, they shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
Pilate said to them, "You take him, then, and crucify him. I find no reason to condemn him."
⁷The crowd answered back, "We have a law that says he ought to die, because he claimed to be the Son of God."
⁸When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. ⁹He went back into the palace and asked Jesus, "Where do you come from?"
But Jesus did not answer. ¹⁰Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Remember, I have the authority to set you free and also to have you crucified."
¹¹Jesus answered, "You have authority over me only because it was given to you by God. So the man who handed me over to you is guilty of a worse sin."
¹²When Pilate heard this, he tried to find a way to set Jesus free. But the crowd shouted back, "If you set him free, that means that you are not the Emperor's friend! Anyone who claims to be a king is a rebel against the Emperor!"
¹³When Pilate heard these words, he took Jesus outside and sat down on the judge's seat in the place called "The Stone Pavement." (In Hebrew the name is "Gabbatha.") ¹⁴It was then almost noon of the day before the Passover. Pilate said to the people, "Here is your king!"
¹⁵They shouted back, "Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!"
Pilate asked them, "Do you want me to crucify your king?"
The chief priests answered, "The only king we have is the Emperor!"
¹⁶Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.

King Hezekiah of Judah
(2 Kings 18.1-3)

2 Chronicles 29 Hezekiah became king of Judah at the age of twenty-five, and he ruled in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ²Following the example of his ancestor King David, he did what was pleasing to the LORD.

The Purification of the Temple

³In the first month of the year after Hezekiah became king, he reopened the gates of the Temple and had them repaired. ⁴He assembled a group of priests and Levites in the east courtyard of the Temple ⁵and spoke to them there. He said, "You Levites are to consecrate yourselves and purify the Temple of the LORD, the God of your ancestors. Remove from the Temple everything that defiles it. ⁶Our ancestors were unfaithful to the LORD our God and did what was displeasing to him. They abandoned him and turned their backs on the place where he dwells. ⁷They closed the doors of the Temple, let the lamps go out, and failed to burn incense or offer burnt offerings in the Temple of the God of Israel. ⁸Because of this the LORD has been angry with Judah and Jerusalem, and what he has done to them has shocked and frightened everyone. You know this very well. ⁹Our fathers were killed in battle, and our wives and children have been taken away as prisoners.
¹⁰"I have now decided to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, so that he will no longer be angry with us. ¹¹My sons, do not lose any time. You are the ones that the LORD has chosen to burn incense to him and to lead the people in worshiping him."
^12-14The following Levites were there:
From the clan of Kohath, Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah
From the clan of Merari, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel
From the clan of Gershon, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah
From the clan of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel
From the clan of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah
From the clan of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei
From the clan of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel
¹⁵These men assembled their fellow Levites, and they all made themselves ritually clean. Then, as the king had commanded them to do, they began to make the Temple ritually clean, according to the Law of the LORD. ¹⁶The priests went inside the Temple to purify it, and they carried out into the Temple courtyard everything that was ritually unclean. From there the Levites took it all outside the city to Kidron Valley.
¹⁷The work was begun on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day they had finished it all, including the entrance room to the Temple. Then they worked for the next eight days, until the sixteenth of the month, preparing the Temple for worship.

The Temple Is Rededicated

¹⁸The Levites made the following report to King Hezekiah: "We have completed the ritual purification of the whole Temple, including the altar for burnt offerings, the table for the sacred bread, and all their equipment. ¹⁹We have also brought back all the equipment which King Ahaz took away during those years he was unfaithful to God, and we have rededicated it. It is all in front of the LORD's altar."
²⁰Without delay King Hezekiah assembled the leading men of the city, and together they went to the Temple. ²¹As an offering to take away the sins of the royal family and of the people of Judah and to purify the Temple, they took seven bulls, seven sheep, seven lambs, and seven goats. The king told the priests, who were descendants of Aaron, to offer the animals as sacrifices on the altar. ²²The priests killed the bulls first, then the sheep, and then the lambs, and sprinkled the blood of each sacrifice on the altar. ²³Finally they took the goats to the king and to the other worshipers, who laid their hands on them. ²⁴Then the priests killed the goats and poured their blood on the altar as a sacrifice to take away the sin of all the people, for the king had commanded that burnt offerings and sin offerings be made for all Israel.
²⁵The king followed the instructions that the LORD had given to King David through Gad, the king's prophet, and through the prophet Nathan; he stationed Levites in the Temple, with harps and cymbals, ²⁶instruments like those that King David had used. The priests also stood there with trumpets. ²⁷Hezekiah gave the order for the burnt offering to be presented; and as the offering began, the people sang praise to the LORD, and the musicians began to play the trumpets and all the other instruments. ²⁸Everyone who was there joined in worship, and the singing and the rest of the music continued until all the sacrifices had been burned. ²⁹Then King Hezekiah and all the people knelt down and worshiped God. ³⁰The king and the leaders of the nation told the Levites to sing to the LORD the songs of praise that were written by David and by Asaph the prophet. So everyone sang with great joy as they knelt and worshiped God.
³¹Hezekiah said to the people, "Now that you are ritually clean, bring sacrifices as offerings of thanksgiving to the LORD." They obeyed, and some of them also voluntarily brought animals to be sacrificed as burnt offerings. ³²They brought 70 bulls, 100 sheep, and 200 lambs as burnt offerings for the LORD; ³³they also brought 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep as sacrifices for the people to eat. ³⁴Since there were not enough priests to kill all these animals, the Levites helped them until the work was finished. By then more priests had made themselves ritually clean. (The Levites were more faithful in keeping ritually clean than the priests were.) ³⁵In addition to offering the sacrifices that were burned whole, the priests were responsible for burning the fat that was offered from the sacrifices which the people ate, and for pouring out the wine that was presented with the burnt offerings.
And so worship in the Temple was begun again. ³⁶King Hezekiah and the people were happy, because God had helped them to do all this so quickly.

A Prayer for the Nation's Welfare

Psalm 85 LORD, you have been merciful to your land;
you have made Israel prosperous again.
²You have forgiven your people's sins
and pardoned all their wrongs.
³You stopped being angry with them
and held back your furious rage.

⁴Bring us back, O God our savior,
and stop being displeased with us!
⁵Will you be angry with us forever?
Will your anger never cease?
⁶Make us strong again,
and we, your people, will praise you.
⁷Show us your constant love, O LORD,
and give us your saving help.

⁸I am listening to what the LORD God is saying;
he promises peace to us, his own people,
if we do not go back to our foolish ways.
⁹Surely he is ready to save those who honor him,
and his saving presence will remain in our land.

¹⁰Love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will embrace.
¹¹Human loyalty will reach up from the earth,
and God's righteousness will look down from heaven.
¹²The LORD will make us prosperous,
and our land will produce rich harvests.
¹³Righteousness will go before the LORD
and prepare the path for him.