Pilate sent Jesus to the big boss called Herod

5The Jewish leaders kept on blaming Jesus. They told Pilate, “He gets people everywhere to go wild. He started to do that in Galilee country, then in Judea country, and now he is doing it here in Jerusalem.”

6When Pilate heard them say that, he asked them, “Is he from Galilee country?”

7They said, “Yes, he is from Galilee.” The big boss over Galilee was called Herod, and he was visiting Jerusalem right at that time. So Pilate sent Jesus to him, to let Herod be his judge.

8Herod was very happy to see Jesus. You see, a long time before that day, Herod heard about Jesus, so he always wanted to meet him. He wanted to see Jesus do something powerful.

9So Herod asked him a lot of questions, but Jesus didn’t answer any of them.

10The bosses of the Jewish ceremonies and the Jewish law teachers, they stood there all that time, shouting out and blaming Jesus.

11Then Herod and his soldiers started laughing at Jesus and rubbishing him. They put a pretty coat on him, the sort that a big boss wears. Then they sent him back to Pilate.

12You know, before that day Herod and Pilate didn’t like each other, but on that day they became friends.

Jesus told the Jerusalem women that something bad will happen

27A big mob of people followed Jesus. There were a lot of women among them. They were really sad. They were crying really loud, and they were hitting themselves.

28So Jesus turned around and said to them, “You women that live here in Jerusalem, don’t cry for me, but cry for yourselves, and for your kids.

29Listen, soon bad things will happen to everybody. The time will come when people will say, ‘Those women that can’t have babies, and those women that don’t have to feed babies, they are the lucky ones.’

30Things will be so bad that people will want to die, so they will ask the mountains to fall on top of them and kill them. And they will ask the hills to bury them.

31You see, I didn’t do anything wrong and people are hurting me. But you mob do bad things, so people will hurt you a lot more.”

One criminal believed in Jesus

39One of the criminals hanging on a cross beside Jesus was rubbishing him, and said, “You reckon you are the Christ, the special man that God promised to send to save us. All right, if you are God’s man, then save yourself, and save us too. But I reckon you can’t do it.”

40But the other criminal hanging on a cross said, “Don’t talk like that. Have a bit of respect for God. Listen, they are killing the 3 of us together.

41They are killing you and me because we did really bad things, but this man, Jesus, he didn’t do anything wrong.”

42Then that criminal talked to Jesus. He said, “Jesus, you are going to get God’s people together into one family, and you will be their leader. When you do that, don’t forget me. I want to be there with you too.”

43Jesus said, “All right. Listen, you will be with me today, in God’s good place called Paradise. That’s for sure.”