Friday Bible Story for Children

Jesus was taken to Caiaphas (definitely not a southern name). He was the head preacher (High Priest). The teachers of the law and elders were there. Peter followed the crowd there, and hid among the guards to find out what would happen.

The preachers started asking Jesus a bunch of questions, but Jesus wouldn't answer them. Finally Caiaphus asked Jesus, under oath, if Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said that he was, and that one day they would see him sitting at the right hand of God. With that, Caiaphus said that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy (sort of taking the Lord's name in vain) and asked the others what they thought. They agreed and said that Jesus should be put to death. Then they started spitting on him, hitting him with their fists, slapping him, and making fun of him. Don't you know that when they died, and went before God for judgment, that Jesus was sitting there saying, "I told you so!"

Remember, Peter was sitting outside listening. 3 times people recognized him and said that Peter was with Jesus. He sore up and down that he had never even met Jesus! The third time he did this, a rooster crowed announcing that it was Friday morning. He had denied Christ 3 times, just as Jesus said he would. The preachers took Jesus to the governor, Pilate, to have Jesus killed. The preachers didn't have the authority to do it. At the same time, Judas realized he had messed up. He tried to give the money back, and the preachers wouldn't take it. Judas threw the money into the Temple and ran off and killed himself. The preachers used the money to buy a burial place for foreigners. That fulfilled a prophecy in Jeremiah.

When Jesus was in front of Pilate, he was asked if he was King of the Jews. Jesus said he was. The preachers brought evidence against Jesus, and Jesus wouldn't defend himself. Pilate had no choice but to go through with the plan to kill Jesus. He didn't want to. Even Pilot's wife went to him and said that Jesus was innocent, and have nothing to do with it. She had a dream about it.

Pilate had one more chance to get out of this mess. It was a holiday, and they had a custom. The governor could release one prisoner back to the Jews. He knew that only five days before, on Sunday, Jesus had come into town being treated like a king! The crowds loved him. Jesus had been performing miracles all week. Surely if he offered to let Jesus go the crowds would be happy. He made his odds a little better by offering them only two choices. Jesus or Barabbas. Barrabas was a murderer and was hated. But the preachers convinced the crowd that Barabbas should be released and Jesus killed. When Pilate asked which of the two should be released, the crowd yelled, "Barabbas!" Pilate asked what crime had Jesus done? What should be done to him? The crowd yelled that Jesus should be crucified. Pilate was shocked, and washed his hands. He said he didn't want Jesus' blood on his hands. The crowd yelled, "Let his blood be on us and on our children." So Pilate had Jesus beaten with whips, and turned him over to be crucified.

The governor's soldiers took Jesus away. A crowd of the soldiers circled Jesus. They stripped him naked and put a scarlet robe on him, made a crown out of thorns and put that on his head, and put a staff in his right hand. Then they started spitting on him, making fun of this "king of the Jews". They took the staff and beat him in the head over and over again. Then they put his own clothes back on him and led him away to be crucified.

You might not know what "crucified" is. If the government puts someone to death today, they use either electrocution or lethal injection. Fairly recently they would have used firing squad or hanging. In Jesus' day, the used crucifying. They used wood shaped like a T or an X. They would tie a prisoner to it. It was so high the prisoner's feet couldn't touch the ground. The person would hang by their arms until their lungs collapsed or they died because they had no food or water. It could take days for someone to die. But because the holiday was coming they had to speed up Jesus' death. There are several references in the New Testament that says that Jesus was nailed to the cross, not tied to it. That means they hammered huge nails through his hands and feet to hold Jesus to the cross.

Since Jesus was beaten so bad, he was not strong enough to carry the cross (as was custom) to the place they crucified him, Golgotha. So the soldiers forced a man named Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross. The soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross. They gambled for his clothes. Pilot ordered a sign to be put on the cross above Jesus' head. It said "This is Jesus, King of the Jews." The preachers wanted to add to it "this man claims to be" but Pilate wouldn't let them. Crowds of people came by and yelled insults at Jesus. There were two robbers that were being crucified beside Jesus. They were yelling insults at him. One of them ended up asking Jesus for forgiveness.

Some miracles were about to happen. The Jewish Temple had a special sanctuary called the Holy of Holies. Normal people like us weren't allowed in there, only the preachers. In fact, only special preachers. That part of the Temple was separated by a heavy curtain, and normal people weren't allowed to even look in there.

From noon until 3 in the afternoon, it was dark! It should have been daylight, but God was sending a sign. At a little after 3, Jesus died. Immediately, there was an earthquake. Rocks split, the curtain in the Temple split open. Tombs opened up and many holy people were raised from the dead. When the soldiers saw all of this, they were scared. They now knew that Jesus was the King. Several women were watching what was going on. They believed in Jesus and had been following him for a while.




A man named Joseph had a grave that he had just had made in the side of a mountain. It was solid rock. Joseph was a follower of Jesus. He asked Pilate if he could have Jesus' body, to bury him. Pilate agreed. He took Jesus' body, wrapped it in clean cloth, and put it in the grave. Then he rolled a huge rock in front of it. What Joseph didn't realize was that he wasn't giving Jesus the tomb, he was only letting him borrow it!

- Copyright 2000 by Gene Powell -