Then this man said to Jesus:  “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom!”

And Jesus answered him, as they were both hanging on their crosses:  “To-day you shall be with me in heaven.”

Before the cross of Jesus his mother was standing, filled with sorrow for her son, and beside her was one of his disciples, John, the disciple whom he loved best.  Other women besides his mother were there—­his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and a woman named Mary Magdalene, out of whom a year before Jesus had sent an evil spirit.  Jesus wished to give his mother, now that he was leaving her, into the care of John, and he said to her, as he looked from her to John:  “Woman, see your son.”

And then to John he said:  “Son, see your mother.”

And on that day John took the mother of Jesus home to his own house, and cared for her as his own mother.

At about noon, a sudden darkness came over the land, and lasted for three hours.  And in the middle of the afternoon, when Jesus had been on the cross six hours of terrible pain, he cried out aloud words which meant: 

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!” words which are the beginning of the twenty-second psalm, a psalm which long before had spoken of many of Christ’s sufferings.

After this he spoke again, saying, “I thirst!”

And some one dipped a sponge in a cup of vinegar, and put it upon a reed, and gave him a drink of it.  Then Jesus spoke his last words upon the cross: 

“It is finished!  Father, into thy hands I give my spirit!”

And then Jesus died.  And at that moment, the veil in the Temple between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, was torn apart by unseen hands from the top to the bottom.  And when the Roman officer, who had charge of the soldiers around the cross, saw what had taken place, and how Jesus died, he said:  “Surely this was a righteous man; he was the Son of God.”

After Jesus was dead, one of the soldiers, to be sure that he was no longer living, ran his spear into the side of his dead body; and out of the wound came pouring both water and blood.

There were even among the rulers of the Jews a few who were friends of Jesus, though they did not dare to follow Jesus openly.  One of these was Nicodemus, the ruler who came to see Jesus at night.  Another was a rich man who came from the town of Arimathea, and was named Joseph.  Joseph of Arimathea went boldly in to Pilate, and asked that the body of Jesus might be given to him.  Pilate wondered that he had died so soon, for often men lived on the cross two or three days.  But when he found that Jesus was really dead, he gave his body to Joseph.

Then Joseph and his friends took down the body of Jesus from the cross, and wrapped it in fine linen.  And Nicodemus brought some precious spices, myrrh and aloes, which they wrapped up with the body.  Then they placed the body in Joseph’s own new tomb, which was a cave dug out of the rock, in a garden near the place of the cross.  And before the opening of the cave they rolled a great stone.