John 19:1-3-12 The Message (MSG)

1-3. So Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. The soldiers, having braided a crown from thorns, set it on his head, threw a purple robe over him, and approached him with, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Then they greeted him with slaps in the face.

6. When the high priests and police saw him, they shouted in a frenzy, “Crucify! Crucify!”Pilate told them, “You take him. You crucify him. I find nothing wrong with him.”

7. The Jews answered, “We have a law, and by that law he must die because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

10. Pilate said, “You won’t talk? Don’t you know that I have the authority to pardon you, and the authority to—crucify you?”

11. Jesus said, “You haven’t a shred of authority over me except what has been given you from heaven. That’s why the one who betrayed me to you has committed a far greater fault.”

12. At this, Pilate tried his best to pardon him, but the Jews shouted him down: “If you pardon this man, you’re no friend of Caesar’s. Anyone setting himself up as ‘king’ defies Caesar.”

John 19