Pilate, 'what has He done wrong? He does not deserve to
die. I will scourge Him and let Him go.'

Then the people cried out more loudly than ever, 'Let Him be crucified!
Crucify Him!'

But Pilate did not want to be shouted at for five or six days and
nights again. And, besides, he rather wanted to please the Jews if he
could, because he had done many things to vex them; so he thought, 'I
will do what they wish.' But first he had a basin of water brought,
and he washed his hands before all the people, and said, 'I have
nothing to do with the blood of this good Man. See ye to it.' And all
the people answered and said, 'His blood be on us, and on our
children.' Sometimes now, when we don't want to have anything to do
with a thing, we say, 'I wash my hands of it.' But Pilate did have
something to do with the death of Jesus, and water would not wash away
that sin.

And at last, wishing to please them, Pilate had Barabbas brought out of
prison, and gave Jesus up to be beaten. The Roman soldiers seized
Jesus, and took off His clothes and put a scarlet dress on Him, to
imitate the Emperor's purple robe; and they twisted pieces of a thorny
plant which grows round Jerusalem into the shape of a crown, and put it
on His head; and they put a reed in His hand for a sceptre. And then
all the soldiers fell down before Jesus, and said, 'Hail, King of the
Jews.' And then they spit at Jesus, and slapped Him; and they snatched
the reed out of His hands and struck Him on the head, so as to drive in
the thorns.

Outside the city gate, on the north side of Jerusalem, there is a round
hill, called the Place of Stoning. On one side of that hill there is a
straight yellow cliff, and prisoners used sometimes to be thrown down
from that cliff, and then stoned. And sometimes they were taken to the
top of that round hill and crucified. It is very likely that this is
where the soldiers took Jesus. That hill is often called Calvary.

The soldiers made Jesus lie down on the cross, and they nailed Him to
it--putting nails through His hands and His feet. Then they lifted up
the cross with Jesus on it, and fixed it in a hole in the ground. And
Jesus said,

'FATHER, FORGIVE THEM; FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO.'

Then the soldiers crucified two thieves, and put them near Jesus, one
on each side; and they nailed up some white boards at the top of the
crosses with black letters on them, to say what the prisoners had done.
They put